Gray Hills
by Mr.Minden
Summary: The only sound was the scraping of feet against the scorched pavement. The pair, a boy and girl only sixteen trudged on despite the rumbling in their stomachs and blisters on their feet. "Just a little farther." was the only thought keeping them going every day when they woke.
1. Chapter 1

**Grey Hills - Chapter 1**

 **AN - Hello everyone, I just finished reading an amazing book I got today titled "The Road". I definitely recommend that you pick it up if you have the chance, if you are into a book that is about a great journey. Reading that book inspired me to write this story, I don't know how long it will be but I have a few story arcs planned out in my head.**

 **This story will get a bit dark, you will see why but I really hope that you enjoy it if you decide to read. I'm going to be updating every once and awhile, one a week perhaps, but batch write them. Usually I have about two weeks where I am super busy and then a week of no tests or projects in school. However without further ado, let me turn on some Aerosmith and present you with the first chapter of; Grey Hills.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil**

The only sound was the scraping of feet against the scorched pavement. The pair, a boy and girl only sixteen trudged on despite the rumbling in their stomachs and blisters on their feet. "Just a little farther." was the only thought keeping them going every day when they woke. It had been nearly a week since either of them had eaten but they kept their course. North. Ever since leaving Echo Creek, the uneventful days seemed to fly by until they lost count all together. Their best guess was that it had been three months since the day where all had gone wrong.

It was a normal Saturday in Echo Creek. Children outside playing, traffic jams downtown, the occasional whirring on sirens in the distance. Two teenagers were spending a day outside, relaxing. "Marco Diaz you come back here this instant."

"Not until you promise that we can just do nothing today."

"All right, all right we can do nothing today, but only if we have nachos later."

Before the young man could reply, frantic cries came from the house. The two rushed inside only to see the boys parents in front of the television. "Kids we need to leave the city." Loud beeping was emanating from the speakers.

"What why?" Before a reply could be given, brilliant light blinded the family before the world seemed darker.

"Marco, when do you think we will find food? I'm hungry." the blonde girl asked. Her clothes were ragged, carrying only the clothes on her back, and a pack with a large book, and wand in the bottom.

"I don't know Star, but I hope it is soon. We should be coming up on a town called Penvir soon, hopefully there will be something there. We've been walking all day, do you want to stop or keep going for a while?"

"Let's keep going until we find a building." The burnt trees and dead vegetation offered little in the way of scenery while they walked. Every now and again they would come across a rotting animal or totaled car. Star always stayed behind when Marco went to check on the cars, but he rarely came back with much insisting the cars were empty.

After walking for another hour they came across a shell station. They snuck up to the building, looking through the shattered windows to see if there was anyone inside. "It seems to be empty, and there should be some candy around."

Marco entered the store first, ensuring that the girl's worn soles avoided glass. "Watch out for glass, and look around for food."

"The end of the world and you're still the safe kid." Star laughed, starting to look for any food not ravaged by previous scavengers. The barren shelves ceded little in the way of food, mostly ash and empty wrappers. At the end of their search they made a count of three bags of chips, four chocolate bars, and a tray of stale nachos.

In the back of the gas station was a small room with a couch, battery radio, and cardboard boxes. They took their findings into the back room, gathering the cardboard. Star reached into her bag, pulling out her book. "Glossaryck can you help us?" The pages flipped to reveal a small blue man in torn robes.

"We didn't find any pudding, but this should do you for a few days." Marco handed Glossaryck a chocolate bar.

"Thank you Marco, I assume that you need fire?" Heading towards the cardboard, he snapped a number of times before a small spark ignited the cardboard, warming the three of them.

The teenagers started on the nachos, plain with no cheese but still food. They finished the nachos, still hungry but satisfied for the time being. "I think those nachos were a bit better than yours Marco." The girl joked.

The boy laughed for the first time in weeks, momentarily forgetting their situation. "The slight sogginess was what really sealed the deal for me." The three of them laughed for a few seconds until the crackling of the fire took over.

"Are we going to be okay?" The same question that she asked every night, always met with the same response.

"When we get to Canada." The question brought them all back to the damp, vulnerable reality they were in. "At least we have some food now to hold us over and we can gather the water dripping from the roof in the main room."

"Things will look up Star, we just need to get to a place with no interference and then we can contact your parents." Glossaryck continued, attempting to bring up her mood.

Star tried to lighten the mood, but "We should get to sleep, we have a lot of walking to do." was all she could muster up.

"Alright, I'll take the watch. You guys get some sleep and I will sleep on the road tomorrow." Glossaryck offered. The two agreed and Marco lay on the couch, offering Star to sleep with him. She accepted, curling up in his arms between him and the back of the couch.

The two quickly fell asleep providing each other warmth as Glossaryck looked towards them while fueling the fire. "Sooner or later I will have to make the choice." He sat at the fire the whole night using what little magic he could to secretly enrich their small amount of food so that the two got what they needed to continue their journey.

Star woke in the morning to the sound of static. She rubbed her eyes seeing Marco in the corner fiddling with the radio they found there. "What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Attempting to find any sort of radio signal." He replied before a garbled voice came through the small speaker.

"... Vancouver. The military is evac ….. lians to the ocea….." Only half of what was being broadcasted was audible. "Be saf …. everyo …. some music." A song that Marco interpreted as some song from the early eighties played.

He shut the radio off, removing the batteries stuffing them and the radio into the bag he carried. He handed her two thirds of a chocolate bar. "Here is breakfast."

"What did the radio say?" She asked while devouring the food she was given.

"The best that I could make out is that they are evacuating people from Vancouver, so I guess that group was right." About two weeks earlier they came across a group in a small town near the coast.

They stayed the night with the group, Glossaryck performing basic magic in exchange for some food, and after a while they said that they heard the Canadians were organizing some sort of evacuation.

"I got a call from my friend up in Canada right before we got hit that they were evacuating the country out of the cities and over to Australia on the west coast." one of the group had said, while they all shared beans around the fire.

"You think they got hit as bad as us?" Marco asked.

"I heard that the only places hit were on the west coast and even then that was a few hours after we got hit, so a lot of people got out into the countryside. Before the radio went down completely they were reporting refugees from Britain and France were coming in."

"Well Canada is a big place, with not a lot of major targets." another piped up. "Ottawa, Toronto, Halifax, Montreal, and Quebec city are the only places of value to hit. But I'm sure if it was the Russians who fired they got other places hit. Fighting over the Arctic and all."

Those being the first friendly people they had met since they left the city, they stayed up well into the morning talking, laughing, and trying to enjoy the time they had before they had to venture out into the cold grasps of the wilderness.

In the morning they tried to convince the group to go with them but they replied with, "We have family in Texas and then plan to head by boat to the tropics." After that they bid the three farewell and continued on the road.

Continuing on the road was what they did every morning. At around ten they gathered their few possessions, slung their packs onto their backs and kept following the road north.


	2. Chapter 2

**Gray Hills - Chapter 2**

 **AN - Time for some reviews before my note!**

 **Guest Sorta - You will see what happened over time, I already have up to chapter 4 written and you should be able to infer over time what happened. However everything will be explained given time.**

 **wwII - A trumpet becoming president would indeed be bad.**

 **So I've decided to release twice a week. Saturday and Sunday. That is if I am not busy that weekend. We're moving next weekend so I may not have time to update but I do however already have until chapter 4 written so I'm sure I will figure out a way to update even if it is from school.**

 **Also looking at the stats of where everyone is visiting from, it's interesting to see all of the different countries. I'm not going to name them all but there are a lot (Over 30). Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter and this one is a bit more lighthearted before we move to the dark side of the Krusty Krab.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil**

When they left the gas station, they thanked whatever they believed in that the wind was not harsh. As they progressed north, and the year went on it was starting to get colder. Without any clothes for the winter they knew that they wouldn't survive, and they made it their priority to get new clothes when they got to the next town.

They passed a sign reading "Penvir - 15 Miles.". "We should be there by dusk, and we will stay there for a few days." Marco said as they took a short break to rest their feet. At the side of the road they looked into scorched forest. Nothing moved among the charcoal pillars that once contained all manners of life. Star often asked about what used to live there and what will happen to the area now. When she asked that he would always tell her that "One day the trees will grow back, and all of the animals will come back." He knew that this wasn't true but he hoped that it would cheer Star up. Sometimes is did, others not so much.

Around noon they heard the unmistakable sound that echoed through the entire forest for miles around. An engine. "Quick get down." Marco threw himself and Star just past the tree line, under an ash filled bush. "Shouldn't we ask them for help?" Star asked. Marco had contemplated for a minute about that, but quickly remembered some of the things he had seen in the vehicles that they saw at the side of the road.

The better ones just had people shot. The bad ones had the remains of victims of cannibalism, which is why he had been avoiding towns. But they were running low on food and needed to take a risk. Marco never responded to Star, and they waited for the vehicle to pass. After a few minutes they saw a truck slowly roll past. There were two men in the back, both carrying assault rifles. It wasn't clear what was in the back but it was some sort of meat.

Blood was spilt all across the side of the truck and they noticed a lack of women or children. They didn't have to see the back to know what was there, and Star just closed her eyes leaning into Marco, crying silent tears. The two lay there for an hour before finally moving. "Cmon Star, we're not that far from the town and once we are there we can find a place to stay for a few days." Star just nodded and accepted Marco's hand as he helped her back onto the road.

An hour before sunset they reached the outskirts of the town. At this point they decided to take the side roads to avoid any unwanted attention. The streets were abandoned, but the town seemed mostly intact, and after half an hour they came upon a family run drug store, doors still locked. "This is good, we can stay here for a few days and they seem to have a lot of stuff."

"How are we going to get in?" Star asked.

Marco looked around for a few minutes before leading her up the neighbouring buildings fire escape. The metal frame groaned as they ascended and Marco kept expecting someone coming out to tell them to leave. At least that would be a human being who was sane. He brushed those thoughts out of his head, as they reached the roof, they saw that they could reach the other roof easily.

They hopped over to the other roof and found a roof door. "How are we going to get in?" asked Star.

"With this!" Marco pulled a bobby pin from his backpack, easing it into the lock opening. There was a click as the mechanism opened and they handle turned with ease. A musty smell emanated from the bottom of the stairs. "Well, let's' go." They descended the stairs together entering behind the counter. When they got to the storefront, Star cried with happiness as she saw the fully stocked shelves. Medicine, food, and cheap clothing lined every wall. Night was coming quickly, so the two covered the glass door, and started a fire using matches they found.

When Glossaryck finally came out of his book, he smelled cooked meat and coke. The teenagers were playing go fish using a deck of cards that they had found on the shelves. Beside them were almost a dozen cans of pop, and snacks. Glossaryck smiled before noticing a plate with a portion of meat on it for him, and to his pleasure a cup of chocolate pudding.

"Alright Marco, close your eyes. I have a surprise for you." Marco did as he was told, as he heard Star digging around in her bag. "You can open your eyes now." When he opened them he saw Star fiddling with her wand.

"Star you know what we agreed on. No magic unless it is necessary. We don't have a wand charger."

"Please Marco, you will see." She placed the wand on the ground near the bags as a familiar tune played from her wand.

He approached her, asking "May I have this dance?"

She simply nodded, placing her left hand in his, and her right on his left shoulder. They danced to the melody, and although they were in rags it was just as special as the first time they danced.

Uninterrupted, they waltzed around the room, illuminated by the fire, moving in perfect harmony with the music filling the air with energy for the first time in months. As the song came to a close, they looked into eachothers eyes, and embraced. "I see you still know how to dance." Star commented while they hugged.

"It's strange what you will remember during the end of the world."

They came apart and Star put her wand away, while Glossaryck applauded.

"It was much better without Tom to interrupt us." Star commented. Marco laughed at that and replied.

"I wish Tom would have interrupted us. I can't believe that I am saying this but I actually want to see Tom. At least he could get us out of this."

After the dance they continued to play cards, crack jokes, and try to embarrass each other.

Laughing into the night, Star and Marco fell asleep beside the small fire, a smile on their faces and comfortable for the first time since it all started. After they fell asleep, Glossaryck noted how magic was working better here, and retreated into his book for the rest of the night.

When morning came they slept in. It was around noon when they awoke, and readied a meal for themselves. "I think today we will just relax, maybe see what is around. And tomorrow start out again. We have to atleast get to Oregon before winter."

"When will winter set in?" Asked Star.

"I'm not sure but if I am correct it should be november right now. That means we should have a month or two before the heavy snow sets in. But once we get to Oregon we will find a place to stay for the winter and make the rest of the journey next spring."

They spent the rest of the day idly talking while they gathered what they would be taking with them. Due to Star's magic purse, they could store a large amount of food in it. They ended up gathering a two month supply of food and water, all of the medicine, along with enough pudding for Glossaryck to gorge himself on.

That night they slept early and woke up late. With the store effectively empty they exited through the roof, jumping over to the next roof, making the descent to the street. Within half an hour they were on the main road again heading north. They were just heading out of town then they heard the first gunshot. Soon it was followed by another, then a volley.

Soon it was an all out gunfight coming from the other side of town as they hurried away from the town. They didn't want to be around when whoever won came though. "Shouldn't we take a side road to try and avoid whoever was back there?" Star asked.

"No because they will take the side roads. Those are the clear roads whereas the main roads are all jammed in certain places."

The cold north wind was blowing straight into their faces, and by dinner time the sky was overcast. They came across a bridge and went under it. Marco gathered a large enough supply of firewood to last them the night. Only ten minutes later it started pouring rain. Marco constructed a makeshift wall of river sand and gravel to block the wind.

After cooking a meal for themselves, they curled up with each other covering themselves with the extra clothing. Glossaryck came out of his book to take the nightly watch, and with that the teenagers fell asleep in each other's arms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Gray Hills - Chapter 3**

 **So in celebration of what is (probably, don't know because I am releasing this before the election is over.) a new age of Trump I have released an early update to the story, which is also the length that I hope to have chapter near from now on. (About 2 thousand words.) Also, it was nice knowing you all of my American friends. Come on up to Canada if you need a place to stay.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil**

Marco frantically ran outside the front door to see a column of fire to the south, reaching higher than the buildings it demolished as it expanded, swallowing everything in its path. Marco knew what this meant, and ran inside.

"Star get your scissors, we need to leave!"

"What's happening Marco?"

"No time to explain just open a portal."

"To where?"

"Anywhere!" Star did as she was told, as Marco's parents started pushing the teenagers through the portal until Star remembered.

"Glossaryck! We need to get him. You guys go through, I will only be a second." Star exclaimed as she pushed them through the portal. Marco's eyes widened as he knew what was about to happen. He looked around for only a second.

As he looked he noticed something. _They were on mewnie, in the throne room._ The only thing Marco thought about the time though was getting to Star before it was too late. He immediately jumped through the portal, only hearing his mother, "Marco!" before a force blew him back, where the portal should have been.

When he woke up, Marco hurt all over. The only thing he could smell was burning rubble. "Star!" was the first word he spoke, voice coarse and short of breath. He pushed himself up, noticing the shattered glass and china all over the floor. Shakily, Marco started walking towards the stairs where he knew Star was last.

Each step he took, the wood creaked and he rounded the top of the stairs, coming in front of Star's ajar door. He pushed it open and saw her sitting on the ground, tears streaming from her eyes. He rushed over as fast as he could and star beside her.

"Star, we have to go." She nodded and pulled out her scissors, attempting to open a portal to her home dimension. The Scissors sputtered and nothing happened when she tried to open a portal. Nothing happened after that.

"We're stuck" Came the monotone voice from behind. Glossaryck was standing there, no expression on his face.

"What do you mean we are stuck?" Asked Marco.

"It means that whatever that was has some side effect. It is disrupting magic, which means no wand, no dipping down, and no scissors." To this Marco started panicking.

"What are we going to do then?"

"We need to leave the city and find a place with no interference." Glossaryck approached Star and observed her arm. There was glass shards piercing her right bicep. "A little help Marco?"

Marco moved, and ripped part of the fabric from Star's bed, as glossaryck tried to calm her. "Don't worry Star soon enough you will be back on Mewnie, we just have to get this out of your arm first." She nodded in agreement and Marco held her hand, as he started to ease the large shards out of her arm.

She cried out in pain every time he removed one, and by the time they were done she had four large gashes bleeding profusely. Marco gently wrapped the cloth around the wounds, tying his best attempt at a knot to keep pressure on it.

Eventually she gained enough strength to stand, and they made their way downstairs. Now that he could look around Marco saw that the entire house was destroyed. Anything that could shatter, did and everything was blown off of the walls.

"Sit." was all Marco said to Star as he stood a chair up, and moved towards the pantry. She said a quiet "Thank you." and sat. Marco tried to flick the lights on, but the power was out. Inside the pantry he found an assortment of canned meat, vegetable and beans. There was also a case of water along with cleaning supplies and rubbing alcohol.

He left the cleaning supplies and gathered everything else. "Star, do you have your purse on you?" She nodded and handed it to him as he started loading everything individually into it. He then grabbed his backpack and loaded the spellbook, wand and scissors into it. Glossaryck stopped him before he put the scissors in. "Don't bother they were de-enchanted by the blast. Anything enchanted was."

"Even the wand?"

"The wand is a source of magic, so no it can still produce magic similar to Star or me, but not with whatever removed the magic from the area."

Marco simply nodded and left them on the kitchen table, slinging the backpack onto his shoulders. "Can you walk star? We need to leave the city." She only nodded, and they opened the front door, stepping onto the ash covered street.

Marco woke startled. "Just another dream." he thought to himself. Looking around he saw it was still dark, Star curled up against him. How she could look so peaceful in the middle of all of this he would never know.

Standing up, Marco brushed the sand from himself. Looking over to the fire he saw that it was only embers. Walking over he put more sticks on the fire and looked around, while warming his hands. Glossaryck was nowhere to be seen. Marco stopped moving and heard the faintest of sounds over the beating water above.

It sounded like voices nearby. He brandished a larger branch as a makeshift weapon and crept around the makeshift wall, seeing who it was. All he saw was Glossaryck sitting on the ground, near the edge of the bridge overhang. Because of the rain he couldn't make out what was being said Glossaryck quickly noticed Marco without turning around, and stopped talking.

"You should be asleep Marco." was all Glossaryck said when he finally turned around.

"Who were you talking to?" Marco asked.

"Myself. I am just remembering a time, long ago." The vague answer didn't satisfy Marco but he didn't inquire further.

"Come back to camp, it's cold out here and we can play cards." Glossaryck accepted his proposal and the two played go fish into the night.

After the third game, Marco opened his mouth to speak. "Do you really think we will be able to leave when we get north?" Glossaryck was silent to this question and just responded with.

"Got any threes?"

"Hmmf." was all Marco replied with as he handed his three to Glossaryck.

Star eventually woke up after dawn, observing the two playing. Beside the two were a series of lines drawn in the sand. Beside Marco were fourteen lines, and beside Glossaryck were fifty seven. Not bad for Marco considering Glossaryck was clearly cheating with the book sitting behind Marco. "You two have fun last night?"

"Hold on Star, I'm about to win. Got any kings Glossaryck?" Marco shushed Star, deep in concentration to the match.

"Go fish Marco, and do you have any aces?" Glossaryck smirked as Marco grumbled, handing over his ace. "And with that I believe that makes it fifty eight in my favour."

"Best seventy three out of one forty six?" Marco asked.

"Sorry Marco but I believe that it is time for breakfast. Maybe another night."

"Alright, what do you want for breakfast Star?" Marco asked, as Glossaryck collected the piles of cards, packing them away for use at a later date.

"What do we have?" She asked, trying to remember what kinds of food they had.

"I'm not the one with the food." To this Star facepalmed and opened her magic purse, digging around for a can. Pulling out a can of dried pears she smiled, as Marco pulled out his swiss army knife to open the can. As the two metals scraped together, Star cringed at the sound.

Throwing the rest of their wood on the fire to warm themselves before setting out they dug into the peaches, devouring them in no time. When they were done, Star stared into the empty can, craving more but saying nothing. Marco wanted to give her more, as he hated seeing her that way but considered their limited supply. He didn't know when they would get more so instead he opted to run his finger along the inside wall of the can, gathering juices before licking them from his finger.

He handed the can to Star and she did the same. Eventually there was nothing left in the can. Marco threw the can into the fire before helping Star clean their makeshift camp up. Carefully packing everything neatly to maximize space efficiency, they wrapped it all in a sheet and placed it into Marco's backpack.

The Rain had stopped sometime during the night, but it left the ground slippery, wet, and cold. Climbing the hill to get back to the road they slipped every now and then, sliding down the hill, or being splashed in mud. By the top they were filthy, but ready to move on for the day.

As they walked, Marco studied the map they carried with them. "We need to avoid going through the city, so we will be going around taking a small road east before heading north again."

"How far after that until Vancouver?"

"I don't know, maybe a few months. We will stop in Oregon for however long we need. If we get snowed in that is alright, there is a lot of wildlife to hunt."

Star was silent for a minute before asking "How will we hunt? We don't have any weapons."

Marco thought about this often. As Star lost more weight, and they encountered more people on the road Marco saw their need for at least one gun. "We need to get a gun and some ammunition." Marco was lost when it came to guns, having never held one before.

"Maybe we could try to trade with the next friendly people we see." Star said hopefully.

Marco quickly retorted, "And if they say no?"

"Then we could steal one, I don't know." After this things went silent for a while until she asked, "But are we still the good guys if we steal?"

"Of course we are star, just look at what we did for people before and after all of this. The ends justify the means." Star grumbled something similar to "A whole lotta good that did." Marco pretended not to notice her remark, and trudged on.

"Look Marco!" Star nearly shouted. She was pointing towards the ditch on the road. Frightened on what she may have seen he rushed over, looking where she was pointing. He scanned the tree line, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But there was nothing strange. Only trees, slopes and more trees.

"What? I don't see anything out there."

"Not out there, down there. Star pointed down into the ditch as the sun glinted off of something, catching Maro's eye. A can, and wrapper of some sort. Dropping into the ditch Marco inspected the can, sniffing it.

"Wiped clean." Marco sniffed the can. "But opened less than an hour ago."

"Does that mean that someone else is nearby?" Star asked, not knowing how to feel about that prospect.

"Yes, and not that far ahead."

"Well, what are we waiting for. Let's go find them!" Star impulsively yelled, grabbing and pulling Marco before he could protest.

Dropping the can so that he could put his full focus towards Star, he grabbed her forearm. "Star, we can't just go and approach this guy. They might be dangerous. We have to be smart about this."

"But Marco, we're so lonely, we can't defend ourselves, and four is better than three." Star argued. She kept trying to drag him forward. "What if this guy can help us get north?"

"And what if there are more than one. What if there are three or four. What if they're the bad guys? You're not thinking Star." At this Stars face fell, as tears threatened to spill.

"Alright…" Star let go of Marco, and started sulking forward.

"However, I never said we weren't going to see who they are."

Star instantly piped up, and turned to a smirking Marco. "So here is the plan."


	4. Chapter 4

**Gray Hills - Chapter 4**

 **Hey y'all, so this story already has over 500 views, and I was looking at where you all read from. It's really interesting to see how widespread the story is read. So greetings to all of you, my friends from other countries. Spain, Sweden, Italy, Russia, Pakistan and even Iceland to name just a few.**

 **Anyways Here is the next chapter, which I hope you guys will like, and now onto reviews.**

 **\- Thanks for the encouraging words my friend, I enjoy writing it.**

 **MAGA - As I said about, thank you for the encouraging words.**

 **kinglan10 - Haha agreed my friend, and I'm glad you think that my story is pretty good compared to others.**

 **theRevil - I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and picking up on the little details and secrets that are just touched on in the story. Also, it's good to see another fan of Aerosmith.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil**

They followed the bend in the road, walking on the hill beside it. "Remember we have to stay low, because we can't let them see us." They sat atop an embankment, creeping along, under bushes and behind trees. The wind kicked up, blowing dust into the air all around them, and that is when Marco smelt it.

After spending weeks with only Star and the wild to smell, he picked up the scent of the person or people they were following. The scent was strange. Something Marco never expected to smell again. "Their very close." Marco whispered. "Let's get closer to the the edge so we can see when the dust settles." Dropping their bags and crawling towards the road, they sat under a bush, waiting.

"What is that smell Marco? It is so sweet." Star whispered, her body already craving sugar at the scent of it.

"It's syrup. Really strong." This made Marco think. _If they have that, how big is this group?_ Marco reasoned with himself for a moment. If a group had syrup how big were they? No one would waste space to carry that instead of food. But if it was a group why was there only one can. Could it be the group that had passed them days earlier? Marco was pulled out of his thoughts to Star whispering.

"Marco, the dust is clearing." The dust settled, allowing them to see the stretch of road in front of them. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary." Star said.

Marco could still smell the sweet aroma of syrup in the air, but Star was right. Nothing was moving. Not a trace that a human had been there in weeks, besides the lingering smell. After waiting for fifteen minutes, Marco whispered to Star. "Whoever they are, they're either long gone, or waiting like us. Either way let's get going." They slowly scooched back behind the bush line where their packs waited.

Walking along a few hundred yards, they eventually peeled back onto the road, Marco removing the map from his pocket. As they walked he pointed at the map. "We're about here." Marco said, pointing at the map. "After this big bend, we will take one fifty six up to one fifty two, then stop for water here." Marco pointed where the highway stopped between two lakes. "After that we take highway five up to the outskirts of Sacramento, before we go around the city."

Whenever they looked at the map, the distance always seemed so short compared to when they started walking. "How long do you think it will take?" Star asked.

Marco studied the scale for a moment, then the map, drawing his finger over it. "About four and a half miles, so about an hour and a half at our normal pace." Star groaned when he said that, before they started on their way.

Marco quickly noticed that the sweet smell disappeared, and took comfort in the fact that soon the would turn off of the main road, losing whoever was now behind them.

The following two hours were uneventful and boring as the hills turned to farmland. Trees gave way to a checkerboard of flattened crops and fields. The highlight was when they passed a flea market, and Star asked him all about them. Questions like "What is that?", "What did they sell?", "So they're like the food stands on Mewnie?" and "Where do you think they are now?".

Marco put thought into her last question. "I am sure that they are fine. Out here they didn't get hit. That was only big cities, so they probably made their way north and got evacuated." Marco explained.

"How would they be there already though?" Star asked confused.

"They had cars, They could drive there in a day if they were far enough away from the cities."

Star seemed contempt with this answer, and said nothing else until they came to a diversion in the road. They had two roads to follow; the first was keep walking straight, the second veered off to the east. "Which road are we going to follow?"

"The one less traveled by." Marco replied, smirking to himself.

"Why are we taking that one? Won't it take longer?"

"It will make all the difference."

"And how are we supposed to know which road is less traveled by?" Star's voice had an annoyed tone to it. She sensed he was purposely speaking in a way she didn't understand.

To her question Marco merely smirked, started walking towards the road that turned east, and promised to explain it to her later.

Throughout the afternoon while they walked, clouds rolled in from the south, a rolling sea of charcoal suspended in the air. "Let's hurry up, we are almost to the next town, and after that we will hopefully be able to make it to that hill line over there."

Marco pointed north east, and Star could see, just past the town a road that winds into a short mountain range. "Once we get there we can find shelter for the night. Staying in town is too risky, especially if they're still behind us."

As they walked towards the town they could see for miles around. Flattened, dead fields with the occasional farmhouse or barn situated in the centre, a driveway snaking towards the solitary structures.

Marco looked out over the vast, barren land trying to imagine anyone else out there who were normal. _Maybe Australia, or Africa_. It was thoughts like this that filled Marco's head when everything was quiet. Silent plans going through his head if they could never get to Mewnie.

That and his friends. He constantly thought about what happened to them. Could they be attempting the same journey as Star and himself? Or had they simply given up, allowing the chaos to take them. Or worse than that, what if they joined the chaos. Looting, murdering, raping. No. He couldn't imagine any of his friends doing that.

But then again he never imagined that the world would end up like this. It was hard, getting up every day. Facing the broken, smoking pile of rubble the planet had become. He often wondered why he continued on. Then he would look over and see the sullen face of the girl beside him and remembered why.

Marco needed to be there for Star. She wouldn't make it out in the wild on her own. She can fight monsters, but what she didn't understand is that man is worse than monster. To trusting, and to naive of this world.

Marco was pulled back to reality as they came closer to the town. "We won't be going into town, but we should try to stay as low as possible so that no one from the town could see us." Star nodded at him as they hunched over, quickly making their way across the open fields near the town. Soon enough they were entering the mountain pass, just in time for dusk to set in.

Marco took one last glance towards the open fields, before turning and continuing with Star. Just around the first major bend in the road, there were forested hills on either side, with a small trail leading south. Following it, they came across a small valley within the mountains, an overhang on one side.

"Let's make camp here. We can start a fire without being noticed, take shelter under the overhang, and scout the next little bit from that hill." Marco started unpacking their tinder, and gathered wood for a fire. "It's going to rain soon, so we need to hurry."

Star opened her bag, pulling out her book to wake Glossaryck, and went into her purse for food. Pulling out two cans, one of corn, the other beans, she set aside the cans for consumption, and knocked on the book cover.

Glossaryck emerged from his book, and gave a her a small bow. "That time already?"

"Yeah it's getting pretty late, and Marco said that it is going to rain soon." Star and Glossaryck looked at Marco who was busy piling enough wood to burn for the night.

The two walked over to help Marco. "What's the plan for tonight Marco?" asked Glossaryck when they arrived.

Marco grunted as he heaved the last of the wood onto the pile, and brushed his hands off on his pants as he faced them. "Well, after we make dinner we will get some sleep and wake up early. Then we head east, and hopefully find fresh water."

"Sounds as good a plan as any, what's for dinner?" Both men turned to Star, as she held up the two cans she had removed from her purse. They filled their only pot with the beans and corn, mixing them in with each other, and then digging in with their assorted utensils until it was gone. Then they passed around a bottle of water, and scraped the sides of the pot clean with their fingers, before adding a small amount of water to clean it.

After dinner, Star and Marco made themselves comfortable under the cliff overhang, and quickly fell asleep. Glossaryck Watched over the campsite, gathering their equipment beside the teenagers so that it would stay dry.

Soon, thunder rolled across the countryside, as thick, black tears fell from the sky, slowly killing the fire. Glossaryck sat in the dark, as he did every night, reminiscing of the past.

In the morning, Marco woke to a sunny morning. Somewhere in the forest a solitary crow screamed to let the few living things know of its presence. Looking around, he saw black puddles conjugating in small ruts and valleys in the ground.

Marco sat there for a moment, admiring the beauty of the forest, even after the end of the world he found it relaxing. Taking a deep breath in, he hoped to smell fresh pine needles and a morning dew. But Marco smelt something different. He smelt a scent that, though normally associated with a good morning, only filled Marco with dread.

Marco violently shook Star, waking her in a confused state. "Wha? Marco what is it?" He quickly hushed her, and leaned into her ear. "Do you smell that?" Nothing besides that had to be said, and Star went pale. "Pack everything up quickly, where is Glossaryck?"

"I don't know, I don't see him!" Star started to panic, but Marco grasping her hand caused her to focus. His shaking hand squeezed hers, his determined look, and the sweat bead on his forehead. Star understood and calmed down. _No matter what, I've got your back_. Star squeezed his hand, and let go before starting to gather their packs into a pile as Marco pulled out his small Swiss. Flipping it open, he yelled into the forest. "Get out of here! We know you're here! If you don't leave then I will kill you."

Marco stood there for one second, two, three. He heard nothing until there was the piercing sounds of a shotgun action sliding to load. "Just stay where you are, turn around, and stay calm." a voice commanded from behind. Marco slowly turned to see the terrified face of Star, and found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

 **And out rolls the first cliffhanger of the story.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Gray Hills - Chapter 5**

 **AN - I hope you guys didn't feel like you waited for too long for this chapter, but I wanted to build some tension for this chapter, and so I hope you guys like it. Onto the reviews!**

 **PIE1999 - Thanks, I am glad that you are enjoying it.**

 **Guest Sorta - I wouldn't call it a knife. More like a sharp two inch piece of metal.**

 **theRevil - I'm glad that you are enjoying my story, and picking up on all of the little detail that I am putting in. I look at it like a breadcrumb trail of details that if you read into it tell their own story. I hope I did well with delivering your expectation for the cliffhanger.**

 **\- Was the wait worth it?**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil**

The end of the barrel was black and dirty. The farther up the gun, the cleaner

it got, and under the mud and black water there signs that the gun was well kept by its owner. The face behind the barrel was terrifying to Marco, though only because of the circumstance. Had they met months ago, before the bombings he could imagine them having a conversation over coffee, or helping the man if he dropped his things.

The man could only be a year older than Marco, maybe two. A thin ginger beard decorated his face as unkempt hair just covered his ears. A long duster going down to the knees covered most of his body, leather boots and khaki pants below that, complete with sunglasses to cover his eyes and a large, misshaped backpack.

Marco's eyes shot between the man and Star, noticing that he was not making any action towards Star. She was covering her mouth in an attempt to not cry, and locked eyes with Marco for a brief second, before looking away.

"What do you want?" asked Marco calmly, as to not set off the man.

"I just want to talk, a nice, relaxed conversation." The young man smiled at them, crooked teeth showing. "So I am just going to ask that you put your knife down, and I will put the gun down."

"And how do I know you won't just shoot us?" Marco asked him, thinking of a way out. Glossaryck was still nowhere to be seen, but he could help them if he came back.

"Because if I wanted to shoot you I could have done it from the safety of the forest while you were asleep." Marco couldn't see the man's eyes to tell what he was thinking.

"Marco, please." Star begged him, her eyes red and puffy.

Marco hesitated. _He does have a point_. Eventually giving in, he lowered the small knife, and the man smiled doing the same to his firearm. "See, this is better eh?" he said, slinging the shotgun over his shoulder.

While the man was distracted with putting away his firearm, Marco did the first thing he thought of. Roundhouse kicking the man in the face, knocking him to the ground. Marco quickly ran over and collected the shotgun that landed on the forest floor a foot away from the man.

He handed the shotgun to Star. "Keep this end trained on him, and if he gets up pull that little lever in the hole." Marco instructed, while pointing to the trigger. "But keep your finger off of the lever, you don't want to accidentally fire.

Marco removed the backpack from the larger man, and rummaged through it. At the bottom he found rope, which he used to bound the man to a nearby tree.

As Marco dragged the man he found that he was easily twice the weight of Marco, even though he did not appear to be much larger. Using his basic knowledge of rope tying he secured the knot on the other side of the tree from the man, bounding him by the waist while Star emptied the contents of the backpack on the ground.

Star spread the contents around the ground surveying them. A small metal box, four cans of meat, three cans of vegetables, some sort of pump, a basic first aid kit, a sac of some sort, and small flashlight. Opening the box she found a peculiar sight. Half of the box was dedicated to just over a dozen shotgun shells, and cleaning equipment. The other half was full of large metal balls.

"Marco, do you know what these are?" Star asked, distracting him from his current task. He walked over to see what she was talking about, to see Star pointing into the box.

"Careful with those, they seem to be lead." Marco warned, while picking one up with his hoodie sleeve.

"What's wrong with lead?" Star asked, putting them down and wiping her hand on her pant leg.

"It is toxic if ingested, so it will make you really sick." Marco inspected the shotgun shells, noting they had fourteen shells. _More than enough_. He thought to himself.

Moving to the other items, they started sorting out the food. "Where is all of his water?" Star asked, turning the pack upside down to make sure that they missed nothing, a tarp falling from a secondary pouch in the main pocket.

"It's strange, he doesn't have any. Maybe he just finished it and he came to ask for water?" Marco pondered, before noticing a small black cylinder. "Or, most likely, this is a water pump so he just got water from rivers."

Handing it over to Star, she turned it over in her hands. "Why did he need this to get water from the river? Couldn't he just put the bottle in the water?"

"Because if humans drink water straight from rivers, we could get sick from Beaver Fever." Marco shuddered at a memory of camping as a child.

"Awww, that's cute. So you go crazy for beavers?" Star asked innocently.

"If you call diarrhea fun, well I don't judge." Marco laughed as Star frowned at that. "Let's put everything back into the backpack and put it with the others." Marco suggested, and Star agreed.

After they put the packs together, they ventured just into the woods to gather fuel for the fire. "Do you think you did the right thing?" Star asked Marco, as they picked up dead wood from the forest floor.

Marco stopped, not considering that himself. "I'm not sure, I just did what I thought was best at the moment and he seemed dangerous, so I incapacitated him."

"But what he said was true, if he wanted to hurt us then he would have just shot us from the forest right?" Marco was only silent to her comment.

After a dozen trips, they had enough wood to burn for the whole day. Marco started getting food as Star tried to restart the fire. She found a coal in the ash, and watched it for a minute. "It's us." was all she said, and Marco walked over and bent down.

"The coal?"

Star nodded at him, and explained. "In all of this ash, we are the flame that can reignite everything." She demonstrated by catching fire to dry grass, and piling more flammables on top until it could sustain a log.

How Star could have so much hope when she looked around and saw only death and destruction, Marco would never know but he was glad that she was there to keep him together.

Hungry from not eating breakfast, they cracked open a tin of spam, and cooked it on sticks over the fire. They were unevenly cooked, but the two consumed them regardless. As they were feasting, Star looked over to the man.

"Do you think he is a bad guy?" Star asked Marco.

"Worst. I think he is Canadian."

"What does that mean?" Asked Star, but the man was starting to wake up.

When he awoke, he saw the two tearing into meat slabs. "If you're going to eat my food, could I atleast have some?" the man asked from a few feet away. Star looked at him, seeing no anger in his face. Marco shook his head, but Star got up anyways and brought him three slabs of meat.

"Thank you." was all he said before Star started to feed him. When he was done she moved back to Marco and sat down. After a few minutes of silence, the man started talking. "You have a good kick."

"Thanks." was all Marco responded with, before getting up and approaching the man while Star waited by the fire. He kneeled in front of the man, removing the sunglasses so he could look the ginger in the eyes. "How many more of you are there?"

"None. There were sixteen of us, but I'm all that's left." The man looked down at saying this.

"What happened?" Star asked from behind, feeling sympathy for him.

"We just graduated, came down from Canada and we were out in the woods hunting. It was just me an' a friend out in the woods when we heard the guys back at camp blowing a whistle. We rushed back to see what was happening, and when we got back the girls were panicking." He chuckled at this, remembering the day.

"Was that the day everything went down?" Asked Marco.

"Yeah. When we all got settled down they explained what had happened and we came up with a plan. During the first few days when there was still radio they were saying that we needed to get to the coast, so we got into our cars and headed west. Until we stopped at a town that is. The first place we stopped people were everywhere, we went to see if we could get some food for the future. We knew money was going to be useless, so we head in with our stuff to barter and find nothing inside. When we got outside our cars were gone, and a fight had started in the street."

Throughout the story they heard a tale of hope and sorrow. The man went on to explain their journey of walking across multiple states, and a desert. "Shortly after we got close to the coast, we were camping and saw you two walk by. We were following you for almost a month until a couple of days ago."

"You were following us that long?" Asked Marco, doubtingly.

"Yeah, we didn't know if we should approach you two since after a while we saw how dangerous you could be, especially with that little blue guy."

"You've watching us at night?" Star asked incredulously. Surely they would have seen a group that large if they were watching them.

"Yeah, we always had at least two of us watching you at night while the blue guy goes off and talks to himself in the dark."

 _We will have to talk to Glossaryck whenever we find him_. Star thought to herself.

"His name is Glossaryck, and where is he?" Marco demanded.

The man thought for a minute, before responding with, "He was out in the woods last night while I was in a tree but then I lost sight of him. All of a sudden he was in front of me floating, interrogating me. We talked for a while and it turns out he knew we were following you three. He asked me to watch over you tonight and approach you in the morning."

"But where did he go?" Star begged the man to answer.

"He went towards the hills over there." The man nodded towards the hills adjacent to the road. Just then they heard yelling.

"Star! Marco! We have to get moving!" Yelled Glossaryck, flying out of the forest at breakneck speed. He looked panic ridden, and his eyes moved towards the man. "You need to untie our friend here and we need to leave now."

"Glossaryck we don't even know his name how can we trust him? And why do we need to go?" As Marco finished his sentence they heard dogs barking and men yelling no more than a few hundred yards away.

"I imagine that is reason enough." The man stated. At the sound, everything started to go quickly. Star and Marco grabbed their bags, and Marco tugged at the knot he had made.

"It won't budge!" Marco yelled as he made a futile attempt to untie his sloppy tieing job, and the yelling got closer. Star came to try, before Marco grabbed her shoulder. "We gotta go Star!"

"We can't just leave him here Marco." Star exclaimed, tugging harder at the knot. Across the clearing two men holding a pistol and knife, along with a dog emerged from the forest. Marco instantly recognized them as the men who had passed them earlier in the week.

"Get em!" Yelled one of the men and they started running towards Star and Marco. Star clumsily turned towards the running group and did as she was instructed earlier, pulling the small lever back. A roar unlike anything she had ever heard emerged from the end of the barrel, and she got blown backwards landing on Glossaryck.

They heard a whimper as the dog tumbled over, along with the man holding the gun. The man with the knife on the other hand, seeing their vulnerability charged faster, and jumped on top of Marco.

The two struggled on the ground, each grunting and trying to get the upper hand. Their fight lasted for only a few seconds, but Marco couldn't hold the large man back. His muscles burnt from exhaustion and he eventually gave way. Marco only hoped that Star would run away and be safe.

The man on top of him pinned Marco's arms and raised his own to stab the teenager. _I came this far. Please tell them that Star_. Marco thought, right before the man started to lower his large hairy arms, and Marco closed his eyes. _Click. Bang. Foom._ Was what Marco heard, and he opened his eyes to see the man no longer straddling him, but on the ground a foot away, a massive hole in his chest, smoke filling the air.

A hand was offered down to Marco, and he grabbed it looking at who had saved him. What he saw he didn't expect. He saw their prisoner, musket in hand cut ropes behind him. "The name is Wallace." was all he said before he helped up Star. "Never fired a gun before eh?" Star shook his head and he grabbed the shotgun, loading another round into the chamber and handing it to Marco.

Grabbing his bag he turned to them. "Let's get out of here!" They ran into the forest, Wallace pausing for a moment looking around. "Hold on for a second."

Star and Marco were confused until he pulled an instrument from a hollowed tree stump. Star had never seen something like it, but decided to inquire later. Wallace slung it over his back, and they ran.

They ran through the forest, up a hill, and towards the road. When they could see the road, they kept to the side of it, just far enough away to not be seen as they sprinted for their life.

Once they could run no longer, and their lungs burnt they stopped, Wallace doubling over against a tree. He was hyperventilating and coughing. He stayed that way for a few minutes. Star walked over to him, exhausted. "Are you okay?" She asked, noticing his fast and shallow breathing.

He weakly coughed out "I will be in a few minutes. Just asthma." After he started taking deeper breaths, they continued down the road, trying to put as much distance between them and the group behind them.

After a few hours of walking they couldn't continue any farther, and collapsed at the bottom of an embankment. They couldn't muster the strength to start a fire, so they ate cold beans for dinner. No one spoke the entire night.

After dinner, they immediately fell asleep, as Glossaryck took the nightly watch sitting very close to the group, not saying a word. Marco lay awake for only a minute, staring up at the stars, thinking of the girl who, rather than being beside him, slept a few meters away. Marco didn't have enough time to think about this before he passed out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Gray Hills - Chapter 6**

 **AN - Hey guys, sorry for not updating on the weekend, I am making an entire world to run a DND game and that is what I took most of my time doing. Anyways this chapter will mostly focus on Star and Glossaryck, because I feel like glossaryck doesn't get enough love and he is one of if not my favourite character. Also I am introducing Wallace some more, because having a character you don't know much about kinda sucks.**

 **Also has anyone else seen the season finally because HOLY SHIT. I am torn on how I feel, and I will give my feelings on it at the end with a little note of spoilers. Anyways onto reviews.**

 **theRevil - Yeah I wanted to mostly focus on introducing the new character, but there was two small details which you may have picked up on and just not realized it.**

 **Guest Sorta - Hey, maybe in the future of the story you will see some sort of makeshift knifegun. If you do just know that you inspired me.**

 **Gorbebe - Thanks. I am really glad that you are enjoying it. Even more glad that you don't normally like stories like this. You're correct when you say that it's well thought out. I've been toiling with the story idea for a few months ever since I read another story on here, which gave the idea for a single scene. From there I slowly developed this story and reading The Road was what gave me the setting. You will see what I mean by inspired, and I will leave a little note at that time referencing the story and author because without them this story would never have existed.**

 **Geoj - I'm glad that you are enjoying it. And believe me that I do plan on continuing for a while. This story will be a multi-story saga which will eventually cross over with one of my favourite shows, which I have been and will be continuing to drop very small hints of which one it will be. Maybe you guys can figure it out.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil**

The only things Star could think of when she woke up was that she was cold and hungry. Damp clothes caused her shivers in the cold fall air. Parting the hair from her eyes, she surveyed the campsite. To her right, a few feet away lay Marco shivering, damp and cold. Farther she saw a brown lump, two firearms lying beside the figure. She struggled to remember through the exhaustion of yesterday, when everything came back to her.

The stranger who called himself Wallace. The men, who attacked them. But most of all she remembered the minute she ended the life of the large man who was charging them. She looked into his eyes as she pulled the trigger, unaware of what the outcome would be.

Back on mewnie, she had encountered monsters of indescribable evil. Those which could slaughter a contingent of knights. Her father had shown her how to deal with those monsters. Then there were monsters she felt bad for. Ones like Ludo and his minions. She could deal with any monsters. Or so she thought until that moment. Until then she had thought humans were a frail, friendly and caring race.

Ever since "The bombings" as Marco called it, she had been in denial. _Humans couldn't do that, right?_ Is what she always thought of herself. Until those men had emerged from the forest, she had thought it was some sort of monster plot to take over earth from the poor and weak humans.

That is until she realized that it was humans who ended the world. It was humans who killed each other, and those men who came to kill them were human. In that one moment she realized that humans are worst than monsters, and only seek destruction. She now understood why Marco sheltered her from the world, and why he never explained what a gun was to her. Now she knew.

She knew what a gun was. It was something humans had designed to kill other humans. Just like the devices that ended the world. They only tolerated each other because they had to but now that there is no one enforcing laws they turn on themselves like starving animals.

And she had become just like them. No matter what she did, she could not forget the look of the man when the light faded from his eyes. The pain that shot through them right before he doubled over. Looking at her hands, she was disgusted with herself. With herself and with humanity. She had been fascinated by human war tactics until now. Now she realized what they were. Sending others to their deaths for no purpose, marching into their graves and calling it a victory.

And Wallace. That name left a foul taste in her mouth. He told a story of trying to survive with his friends, but had not hesitated to take another's life so brutally. She didn't trust the young man. Something was off about him. He had kept a gun from them, and somehow gotten out of the restraints they couldn't untie.

Star was pulled from her thoughts as Glossaryck walked into view. "Glossaryck." was all she said. He turned towards her and saw the sadness in her eyes. He motioned for her to follow him, and they walked a short distance from the campsite.

"What's bothering you?" asked Glossaryck, as he motioned for her to sit beside him. She leaned on a boulder, eyes towards the gray sky.

"I killed that man." was all she had to say for Glossaryck to understand.

"He was going to kill all of us." Glossaryck tried to reason with her.

"That's the point. How could a human do that? I thought they were kind but now I've realized that they are worst then the monsters. I mean, look at what they've turned their world into. What they now do to each other."

"But that isn't what is bothering you so much?" Glossaryck guess.

"No. What bothers me so much is how little Marco is affected by it all. Almost as if he expected it all." Star thought about her best friend, and everything that he had done in the past few months. He had attempted to make sure she got back to Mewnie as fast as possible, and stopped her from meeting anyone else.

"You of all people should know that Marco is different. Why would he have come back for you if he wasn't?" That made Star think. He was different. He came back for her even though he knew the risk. Everything he had done was for her.

"I know Glossaryck, but how can I be sure? Especially with that Wallace guy. Something doesn't sit right with me about him." Star looked towards the campsite where the two boys slept.

"Trust me Star, he is a good guy." Glossaryck said while pointing to his eye. "Remember. I knew he was following us for weeks now, and I've been keeping an eye on him."

This did little to reassure Star, but she took his word regardless. "Do you think we can actually get back to Mewnie?" She asked Glossaryck after a period of silence.

"I don't see why not. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I'm sure that there are search parties looking for us right now, you just have to remember that this is a big place to search." Star seemed content with this answer, and looked up towards the sky, the soot clouds dampening her already poor mood.

Star opened her small purse, and precured two cans. One of pears, and the other of beans. She sighed as she began to open them, and removed the pot from a backpack to start a beanie breakfast. Glossaryck surveys the spell book, before tearing a small part of a page to burn. He gathered small amounts of wood and stacked them, before creating a spark which caught on the page. He placed it under his tinder, which quickly caught and eventually spread to the branches. Hot enough to start cooking, Star moved the pot over the open flames, as they licked the side of the pot.

The two magical beings sat near the fire, attempting to dry their damp clothes, without exposing themselves to the elements. The only sound between them was the slow bubbling of beans, and crackling of fire. When the beans were almost done, Star added the pears and mixed with a stick. She stared into the bubbling concoction she created, and thought back to when she had freshly arrived on earth.

"Glossaryck, you told me that I needed to dig down to the bottom of the hobo stew to get the meat chunks." Star asked softly.

"That I did." replied Glossaryck, curious where she was going with this.

"Well, do you know how to make Hobo Stew?" Star inquired while smiling at the blue man.

"Depends, what kind of meat do we have." Glossaryck returned the grin, as Star rummaged through her bag. She eventually found canned beef chunks. Glossaryck grabbed the can, and studied it for a moment. "I could make this work, but you can't watch. I still have my secrets you know."

Star smiled and nodded as she stood. Brushing her pants, she turned towards where the men had been sleeping behind her. She saw Marco shivering in the dirt, so she walked over to the packs and removed a blanket laying it over him. Star watched him as he got comfortable, cuddling up to the side of the blanket. She realized how hard it must be for him. He had no idea where any of his friends were and would probably never see them again. His home was destroyed and he would have to go to a completely different dimension where everything was different.

Sure she lost her friends, but she had a home to go back to. A great future ahead of her. Friends waiting for her when she got back. Compared to Marco she had everything, but he only had her, and the hope that they could get to Mewnie. That is when her thoughts turned to their latest companion.

Wallace. He said that he had lost all of his friends. He had no reason to lie,and even if he was they were clearly nowhere nearby. He had nothing to go on for, and yet he had followed them by himself. He had no hope of rebuilding his life in this burnt world, and yet he still went on. She looked to where he was only to notice him gone, and a dark spot where he slept.

Star saw boot tracks leading away from the camp into the forest, and noticed one of the firearms missing. It was the one that he had concealed from them. Star started to panic. What if he had lied and was going to get his group. That is when Star heard a twanging coming from the forest. She looked back to see Glossaryck elbow deep in hobo stew, before walking into the forest.

She followed the sound for a minute until she saw Wallace sitting under a tree, an instrument of some sort in his hands resting on his knee. He skillfully played a song of some war she swore she heard Marco talk about before, and a place called Dixie. When he finished playing his song, she gave a small applause which startled him.

Wallace looked up to see Star watching him intently as he started another song, and started singing. "You fought all the way Johnny Reb Johnny Reb…" Star was amazed by the fluidity of the instrument he was playing. She had never seen anything like it. It looked like a guitar, only instead of a base there was a thin drum. Star watched as the man's fingers flew across the strings, strange metal caps on his fingertips. He finished this song before placing his instrument on the ground.

"That was amazing!" exclaimed Star as she looked over the instrument as if it were magic.

"Thank you. I practiced a lot before the end of the world, but it's been a few weeks since I last played, but I memorized a lot of songs. I can also play the harmonica, but I doubt we will be able to find one of those." Wallace pushed back his sleeve to reveal a watch. It read quarter after nine. "We should probably get back and see if the hobo stew is ready."

Star shook her head in agreement, assuming he left camp when Glossaryck started the stew. Wallace picked up his instrument, and they started back towards the camp. "What kind of instrument is that?" Star asked when he picked it up.

"It's a banjo. Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the southern culture of America, so I learned their music. I even bought a musket and participated in reenactment battles." Although Star didn't fully understand what he meant, she could infer well enough.

"What is a musket?" Star asked, a bit confused. From his jacket, Wallace procured the firearm he had used the day previously, however it looked different to the one she had used. There was a hinge type thing on the side, and a long stick under the barrel. "What is the difference between that one and the one back at camp?" Star asked, her interest peaked about earth weapons.

"I'll explain it to you when we sit down." Wallace said, as they approached the tree line. They walked out to see Glossaryck swimming in the stew, plopping a chuck of meat into his mouth.

"It is ready!" Glossaryck exclaimed, using his limited magic to move the pot off of the fire. He turned to notice the two entering camp, and smiled. "Your meal is ready, my lady." Glossaryck smiled while bowing.

"Thank you Sir Glossaryck, you are relieved."

The two started digging into the stew, before they noticed that Marco still hadn't stirred. They had finished about two thirds of the stew, when they stopped eating. The stew was starting to get cold so they debated what to do. "We should probably wake him up and get moving soon." Wallace suggested.

Star looked towards Marco's curled up figure, resting more than he had in months. She knew that he had been pushed to exhaustion for months, however Wallace provided a good point and he had been sleeping for nearly a dozen hours. "Alright. I'll get him up."

Star walked over to Marco's resting form and gently shook him until he returned to the land of the dead, opening his eyes to see Star, and Wallace leaning over him.

 **Alright, so I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and now we will start to progress north again. Also I will be starting a new story soon. It may affect the update rate of this story, but overall I will probably release the same amount between the two.**

 **FROM THIS POINT ON THERE ARE SPOILERS TO THE SEASON 2 FINALE.**

 **So, did anyone else see that fiane? Please I would love to hear what you thought about it. Personally I am torn. My least favourite character is Jackie and to see Marco and Jackie get together just doesn't fit right.**

 **Is it just me who hates Jackies voice and personality? It feels like she will just use Marco or want to date him because he is "cool" now that he hangs out with Star and goes on these adventures.**

 **Anyways just try to keep spoilers to a minimum in the reviews if you are going to give your thoughts and thanks. Until next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Gray Hills - Chapter 7**

 **AN - It's odd that we are only on chapter 7. It feels like I'm still writing for chapter 3 or 4. At any rate you you guys know what that means? We are about a third of the way through the story, but that doesn't mean it's going to end. Like I am pretty sure I said at the start of the story this will be a multi story story, if you catch my drift, so when this one ends don't worry because I will still be writing, with a small break around the end of december to january because of exams. Anywho, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will answer to the best of my ability.**

 **Also guys, sorry for the unexpected hiatus but it was Christmas so I was visiting family, traveling and celebrating by partying. I will start updating regularly again, and once next semester rolls around I will have a lot of extra time so I am hoping to start a second story that will take place before this one, but you will all see. Anyways, onto reviews!**

 **fanchessybee - The same happened to me, like an old bugs bunny cartoon, however I am still hopeful. And trust me you will get your fix in the future, all I ask is a little patience.**

 **simonnwwhh - YOu have a good point, and I can tell Glossaryck will be able to. Just how they have been showing how badass Glossaryck is in the previous few episodes, and how he greets Luto tells me he has a plan. Also, you never know. Bon Bon may live on.**

 **Guest Sorta - What I hate most is her voice. It's just…. weird.**

 **geoj - Yeah I am planning on doing that, I plan to have it from everyones point of view. You will see over the next few chapters.**

 **geoj - About your second review, I have something like that in mind, but talking about it would spoil a really big twist that is what inspired the entire story.**

 **Guest - No, you're not the only one sad about Bon Bon. he didn't even seem mad or anything when he came back. He seemed like he was just happy to be able to make others laugh again. Until he got sucked in.**

 **.King - Thanks, and I have to agree. The only better mid-season finally I've seen is the gravity falls season 2 where Ford walks out of the portal.**

 **theRevil - Shhhhh people lied to me when I first saw it.**

 **theRevil - Not sure if you commented again on a guest account or this is a poser, because you don't have a profile picture on this one, but it's not that Star thinks their week, but rather she thinks that they are too nice or innocent. As she said, that she thought it was monsters at first. Also I'm glad you like Wallace. He was a gamble because adding an OC is always risky. You gotta make a personality and stick to it or it will be a "It's OC so it can do whatever it wants" type thing. I'm also glad you find him relatable. I just tried to make him as broad as possible with a few characteristics so he has something to him.**

 **Gorbebe - I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and I 100% agree with you about it needing to be January.**

 **Gamerbox - I agree 100%, also I think the blood moon will eventually set them on the right path.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces Of Evil**

The thin skeleton of a woman shuffled across the cold stone room, looking east to the rising sun. The dark circles under her eyes and newly formed wrinkles on her face said all too much to her husband who watched her every morning, get up and look out to the rising sun. "She isn't going to be there."

The woman turned around to face the stout blonde man sitting on their large bed. "I know River, but what else can we do but hope?"

River stood off the bed, and walked over to his wife. "You know well what I suggest we do. Why do we bend the will of others when our daughters safety is at risk?" His wife inhaled before ringing the servant bell to signal for breakfast to be set out.

"You know exactly why. Earth is under quarantine, even opening a portal there threatens war with all members of the council." This conversation replayed every day, at least once but Moon Butterfly wasn't angry at her husband for bringing it up. She was worried for her daughter's safety.

"So we stand idly by while our daughter is alone in that unforgiving wasteland, surrounded by savages with weapons that can kill in the blink of an eye. Our greatest soldiers never returned, and if it isn't the people killing them it's the water or the air. The entire planet is hostile and there is no way she can survive on her own there!" River slammed his large fist on their wall, cracking the ancient stone.

"But she isn't alone. She has Glossaryck, and Marco with her." Moon stood behind her changing wall, using magic to quickly dress herself and fix her large hair, emerging to see her husband grumbling while struggling to button up his shirt, still frustrated at their conversation.

His wife moved over to his and put her hand over his, which stopped his frustration. He moved his hands to his side while she did up his buttons and helped him straighten his beard. Afterwards she sat in one of their lavish chairs to get level with her short husband.

They looked at each others blue eyes before Moon spoke. "River dear, I know that you are frustrated, but please bear with me. I have come to a decision that effective today we raise the army, all new training and doubling the size of the military. Once it's big enough we are sending the volunteer to find them, then we fight as long as we can until he recovers Star, Marco and Glossaryck."

Moon looked down to her husband's mouth to see it curving into a smile, as he lept over to where she was sitting and gathered her in his arms, and energy emanating from him that had been absent for too long. He burst through their wooden door and jumped down a large set of stairs. Moon allowed herself a small smile as her husband carried her to breakfast.

She was very soon seated at a large wooden table, a variety of food laid out before her, River at the head and a large Mexican man with his wife beside him. They were talking quietly among themselves, looking similar to the King and Queen Butterfly earlier that morning, downcast and sad. The queen cleared her throat and the two looked to her. "We have made a decision regarding Star and Marco. Starting today, we are raising the army, and sending out volunteers to look for them. However, this means that we are breaking the quarantine on Earth, and should expect to be under attack by the other realms."

In response the Diaz's stared at the Queen before breaking into tears of joy and moving to the other side of the table, Mr Diaz picking up his wife and the Butterflies in his large arms. "Our Mijo is coming back to us."

"So you're a princess?"

"Uh huh."

"From another dimension?"

"Yup!"

"With magical powers?"

"Exactamundo!"

Wallace thought for a minute, looking hard at them. He took a deep breath and said nothing. "I told you he wouldn't believe us." Marco exclaimed.

"No no, I believe you, I'm just trying to think of something weirder I've heard."

Marco stared at Wallace in disbelief. "So you are telling me you're not even phased by this?"

After the war, nothing can really phase me. Then again before nothing really phased me either." Wallace was deep in thought when he snapped his fingers. "I once met a guy who played an electric triangle!"

Marco looked at the other boy is disbelief. "Oh come on, that doesn't even make sense!"

The ginger boy simply smiled and retorted with "Magical princess from another dimension?"

"Point taken…"

Star watched the two exchange words and laugh. She trailed slightly behind the two thinking to herself. She was worried at first about their new partner, but quickly changed her mind when he was shown to be selfless and understanding. Star never would have thought about Marco in her hunger, as much as it pains her to admit it, but he did. He noticed that the other boy was still asleep and elected to wake him.

She also enjoyed his strange instrument. Although not classy, it made a twang she loved to hear, though her mother would call it a peasant's instrument preferring the piano instead. Star hummed the tune Wallace had sung to her earlier that morning as she followed the two boys still lost in some conversation.

The scenery had grown more barren every day on their venture around the city. They had crossed by dozens of identical dunes of dirt, the occasional patch of grass between. If the sun wasn't shrouded by gray clouds of dust and ash, she imagined the sun would be beating down on them, making their long journey even harder.

They finished walking around a large bend when they came across a fresh, cool breeze over the hill. Star looked ahead and noticed that the two boys had stopped and were consulting a map. "We have to be careful here." Wallace said while pointing at the map. "We'll be completely exposed, and someone could see us from anywhere here."

"Luckily that is a two way thing, so we can see them too." Marco replied as he rolled up the map and stuck it in his backpack. "Once we get to the water plant here, we will stock up on water before heading over to highway five."

"Well, since we are going to be out in the open, may as well play something." Wallace slung his Banjo around, and began to softly play around with some tunes just as Star caught up to the two.

"Do you guys smell that?" Star asked coming up beside them. She held her hand over her nose and as the wind picked up the two boys indeed smelt something fowl. Marco covered his nose while Wallace ignored the smell and continued playing.

"Smells like rotting fish." Wallace exclaimed as he spat on the side of the road, getting a whiff of the smell in his mouth. Putting the Banjo at his side again, he motioned for them to follow him up a small hill overlooking the nearby lake.

Peeking over the dune, they were overlooking the small lake and water treatment plant. Wallace pointed towards the beach. "See there, there's a lot of something on the beach."

"Well let's get going to check it out!" Star jumped up before Marco brought her back down.

"Star we can't just run out there and onto the beach. What if we get seen?"

"Then how are we supposed to see what it is?" Star whined.

"With these!" Preoccupied with each other, neither noticed Wallace remove a pair of binoculars from his backpack.

"How are two cups supposed to help us see?"

"Star those are binoculars." Marco deadpanned.

"Oh yeah… Binoculars. What are those?"

Marco was about to explain how binoculars worked to Star, before Wallace beat him to it. "Magic glasses that make things bigger." Looking through the binoculars, he saw piles of fish on the shore, rotting and being picked at by birds.

"Well why didn't you just say so Marco? I thought you were smart!" Marco just shook his head while Wallace came back behind the dune.

"So there is good news and bad new. Good news is I didn't see anyone. Bad news is there are a lot of dead fish."

"How is that bad?"

"I'm pretty sure that it has to do with the rain, which means that it is probably some sort of toxic ash or radiation in the water which would be affecting all water."

"Oh, so how bad is that?" Star asked looking puzzled.

"This is Saint O's bad Star." Marco replied while Wallace chose not to ask.

"That's bad…"

"Indeed it is my friends!" Glossaryck exclaimed as he emerged from Star's backpack. "Although I'm sure with a bit of elbow grease and magic, we can work something out."

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Marco asked Glossaryck, preferring to not have to deal with his riddles.

"Oh Marco my boy, I don't sleep. I simply wait until called upon or I am needed." He explained with a smirk on his face.

"So you're just always listening to us? That's a bit… weird." Wallace remarked, while Marco nodded in agreement.

"Creepy it is, but I believe that we have a more pressing matter to attend to." Glossaryck motioned towards the road. "Shall we?"

"We sure will." Wallace replied for the group as he started down towards the road to investigate the water plant just ahead."


	8. Chapter 8

**Gray HIlls - Chapter 8**

 **Hey guys, we are coming up to the meat of the story soon, so we will have about three or four more chapter until then. In the meantime I'd like to hear from you guys about what you like, don't like, or would like to see more of so that I can change it so that you guys will like it more.**

 **Also the second half of season two just started and I can't wait for hijinks to ensue. It is slightly concerning that there is an episode called "Just Friends" as a Starco fan, however I think that the title is purposely going to be misleading. Anyways enough with the ranting and just trying to make the story look longer, and onto doing exactly that by responding to reviews.**

 **Mikael0000 - Yeah all they have up there are icy handjobs and slushies.**

 **Guest Sorta - Glad that I'm not the only one who sees it.**

 **franchessyb - Ha ha no you're not imagining things. It is similar to when Marco met Tom for the first time, he will be low key jealous. Things like that. But don't worry, all will be revealed soon enough.**

 **joseftanti - I plan to my friend, and I am glad that you are enjoying the story.**

 **Disclaimer - I asked for rights to Star vs The Forces of Evil for christmas. Sadly they were not under the tree.**

Wallace and Glossaryck took point while Star and Marco lagged slightly behind. "So you're tasked to protect and train each princess?"

"Yes. It is all I have ever done."

"Nothing else?" Wallace stared at the blue man floating beside him in disbelief.

"Well, I did do one thing outside of that." Glossaryck said, knowing that it peaked the young man's interest.

"Really? What was it?"

"I once eat a chili dog with a teenager." Glossaryck smirked, seeing Wallace's frustration.

"Man why do you always talk in riddles. It annoys me, and I've known you for what, a day?" Wallace turned back towards the pair behind him and raised his voice a bit. "How do you guys deal with this?"

"His riddles?" Marco replied.

"Yeah."

"Finally. Someone who understands what I have to go through."

"We're getting close to the plant, lets wait for those two." Glossaryck nodded in agreement and waited in the road for the two lagging behind. When Marco and Star arrived, Wallace pulled out his water canteen, taking a drink.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Star asked, peering behind the men in front of her towards the water plant.

"I'm thinking we should use the hills to approach behind, so we can't be seen and decide once we're there." Marco suggested, to which everyone nodded in agreement.

"Alright, let me just peek over to make sure one last time that we are in the clear." Wallace said, while grabbing the binoculars from his pack, and walking to the crest of the hill overlooking the reservoir and water plant.

"See anything?" Star shouted up at him.

"Nope, we seem to be clear." Wallace responded, sliding down the hill and brushing himself off. "Care to lead the way your majesty?" he said, while Star giggled and Marco glared.

Star bounced down the road, with two young men and a blue sorcerer on her heels.

The group neared the end of the hills, the water plant coming into sight as Star stopped, waiting for the three out of breath followers to catch up.

"How you have so much energy after the end of the world, I will never know." Marco wheezed, catching his breath.

"It is one of my many secrets that you will never know Marco." Star exclaimed through her grin.

Before Marco could retort, an out of breath Wallace and Glossaryck caught up with the two. "Whoo, I should have stayed in my book." Glossaryck panted.

"I wholenheartely agree with that idea." Marco replied, earning a glare from Glossaryck.

"No time for rest guys, we gotta get to the water plant. I'm thirsty!" Star demanded. "Now use your magic glasses Wallace to make sure sure it is safe."

Wallace, after bending over for a few seconds to catch his breath, straightened up and brought out his binoculars to view the surroundings.

"What do you see?" Asked Star.

"Uhh, well there is a door. I guess we use that to get in. No sign of anyone. I'm going to check around the beach while you guys head inside. Sounds good?"

"I don't think that-"

"Yeah sure, sounds good. We will come get you once we find fresh water." Marco cut Star off.

"Alright, see you guys soon." Wallace responded, heading towards the beach to inspect the rotting heaps of fish, Glossaryck in tow.

"I'm going to go with him to check out the effects of this 'radiation' on the wildlife.

"Okay, Star and I will head inside." Marco said, dragging Star by the wrist towards the door. Just before the reached the door, Star slapped his hand away, and stood up straight.

"What are you doing Marco? I can walk myself you know." Star questioned, irritated by his actions.

"Look I need to talk to you about Wallace. He is weird. I don't like him at all."

"What's wrong with being weird Marco? I'm weird and we're best friends!"

"Yeah but he is a different type of weird. I don't know it is something about him. I just get a bad feeling with him getting so close to you." Marco glared the way of Wallace talking to Glossaryck as they walked towards the water.

"Marco, just because you're jealous doesn't mean you need to be mean to him. Now come on we have to get into this place." Marco blushed in response to Star's accusation.

"I'm not jealous Star, this is serious! There is something wrong with him. No one is that calm, or kind in times like these." Star ignored the blushing boy as she observed the door in front of her.

"Marco if you're going to get all conspiratorial on me, can you atleast keep it down while I try to figure out how to open this door?" Before them sat a large metal door, which ruled out using some light magic to blast it down.

Marco stepped beside her, holding his bobby pin. "Allow me." He kneeled down and fiddled with the lock for a moment before it clicked and he removed the pin from the lock. "And done!" He pulled down the door handle and the pair stepped inside.

"It is dark in here! Marco, the flashlight please." Marco rummaged through his pack for a moment before pulling out a small flashlight and clicking it to make sure it worked.

"Here, but we have to be careful, who knows what condition this place is in or if there are people here."

"Yeah yeah yeah let's go Marco, I wanna explore!" Star bounced, excited for a change from the hot sun and barren road.

"Okay Star, but we have to find some sort of map first so we know where we're going. Can you shine the flashlight around a bit?" Star did as he asked until he said "Stop." Before them was a large elevated room overlooking the main floor. "That looks like some sort of managers office so that's our best bet. At least we will be able to have an overhead view."

They walked towards a flight of stairs that led up to a catwalk connecting to the office in peace until Marco broke the silence. "Star, why would you think that I am jealous of Wallace?"

Star answered without looking at him. "I don't know, maybe because he saved us or because he has an instrument. Why were you jealous of Tom?"

"What, I wasn't jealous of Tom. I came to the dance to help you." Marco argued, but Star didn't buy it. "And why would any of that make me jealous. That would only be things to make me like him."

"Then why don't you?"

"I told you Star, it's just a feeling I get when I look at him and his smile. It's like he is hiding something."

"Marco, if Glossaryck says that we can trust him then I trust him. He is afterall my mentor."

"Like you ever listen to him." Marco mumbled.

"What was that Marco?"

"Nothing!" Before Star could question him further they had arrived at the office. The door was already open, and inside sat three large plastic water containers.

Star was ready to charge in, the thirst evident in her eyes before Marco put out a hand to stop her. "Wait, this is too easy." He took the flashlight from her and inspected the room. When he came to the doorway, right before he stepped in he noticed something glinting when he passed the flashlight over it. Bending over to inspect it he noticed it was a wire. He removed his swiss army knife from his pocket and opened the blade. "Star move back." Marco instructed as he lay on his stomach. Star stepped back a few paces before Marco cut the line and a whoosh was heard before an axe swung from around the corner, coming to rest where they would have been standing had they passed through the door.

"Ohh booby traps, that means that there is something good right?" Marco shone the light around the room one last time, before giving Star the go ahead but adding a short "Be careful". As they entered the room they saw the water that they had seen before, but sitting on a desk beside the water was a small box. While Star started groping the containers for an opening, Marco investigated the box.

Marco places the flashlight so that it would illuminate the entire room and removed the lid of the small brown box. Inside he found a polished 44. magnum complete with six rounds. He smiled as he saw what he found, but turned when Star called his name.

"Marco get over here and help me fill my bottle!" Star demanded.

"In a second." he said while fiddling with the revolver, attempting to load it. He eventually figured out how the bullets went in, and loaded all six before putting the gun in a pouch on the side of his pack.

He walked over to Star to see her gnawing on a bit on the container. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Trying to get this thing open. You will falter before me evil plastic!"

Marco inspected the bottom before noticing a small valve on the bottom. "Hey Star help me lift this onto the table over there." Together they picked up the water and moved it onto the table, the valve hanging over the edge. "You take water out by pressing the valve." Marco demonstrated while filling his canteen. He exchanged canteens with Star, and started filling hers.

Star handed Marco his canteen back, drinking about half before he finished it off and refilled it. "We should bring this out for Wallace and Glossaryck." Marco agreed, though more for Glossaryck then Wallace.

Marco picked up the flashlight and put it in his mouth before motioning to Star to help him move the water. They made it to the other side of the room before Marco stopped and motioned for her to put the water down.

He removed the flashlight when Star asked. "What is it Marco?" He silenced her and pushed her to crouching while doing the same and turning off the flashlight. They sat for a few seconds before Star heard voices approaching the opened door.

As the voices grew closer, she could tell that they were not Wallace and Glossaryck, and that there were three voices. Suddenly she heard a shout and the door flung open. Light illuminated the front and allowed the pair to see two men and a woman, armed with rifles enter the building.

 **Whoo, sorry for the delay guys but exams got me down and then I was moving and had no internet for a while but semester two is in full swing, and I have a lot more time now as predicted so expect more updates. I also have started my third story which should be coming out within two weeks, so keep an eye out for that in the next two or three weeks. As always remember to leave feedback and I hope to see you this weekend.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Gray Hills - Chapter 9**

 **Wha-do my friends, it's time for another update! School just started and I'm already getting a bunch of projects to do, but I will keep updating, if only semi-weekly. So we have finally started biting into the good parts of the story so I expect that this Arch is about a third done, give or take a bit. Also, I am quite happy. Our first constructive criticism!**

 **MightyMangoes666 - Well, the thought of making Star not magic would completely ruin the story, because the entire idea for how the story ends is inspired from a story I read a few months back, and it is just really lazy. Like those people who just re-write episodes with minor changes. I'm also glad that you enjoy Wallace. There are two stories in this story, so to say. There is the story of Star and Marco, attempting to escape to Mewnie and be reunited with their families, and there is the story of Wallace. I'm not going to spoil anything but his story is going to be revealed slowly throughout the story, and I am debating with myself how I will end his story. I have a few ways I am thinking, but we will have to see how it goes. I'm also very glad that you pointed out my writing style, becuase I went back and re-read some things and realized that you were right so I've put more effort into describing the world and I hope you enjoy the level of detail in this chapter and continuing to the end of the story.**

 **Disclaimer - I asked Nefcy to be my valentine so I could get rights to the show, sadly it did not work.**

Wallace sighed as he turned away from the two retreating figures. He turned to the blue man beside him who only raised an eyebrow and shook his head no. To this Wallace's only response was to turn around towards the shore and start walking. The sand shifting under the weight of the redhaired man was the only sound as it slowly shifted against itself. As the two approached the shoreline the putrid smell intensified, causing Wallace to cover his nose with his sleeve. "Hold on, I gotta get something to cover my nose." came the muffled request of Wallace.

The two stopped while the young man quickly dug through his bag, grabbing a black bandana which he quickly tied around the lower half of his face. "Do you want something? It won't block the smell completely, but it's better than nothing."

"No, I can't smell anything." Glossaryck responded.

Wallace chucked at this before explaining. "You would think that with such a big nose you would be able to smell it even worst, like a dog."

Glossaryck's face twisted into offense. "Well it doesn't and if you need me or my big nose, we will be over here." The blue man floated over to a pile of dead fish, before climbing into one's gaping mouth to inspect it's insides.

"Guhhh. No more hobo stew for me." Wallace remarked to himself before hurrying to the edge of the water. The water was a black, tar-like substance, with small ripples caused by the dry wind sweeping over the small reservoir. The stagnant smell hit Wallace's nose, fueling the sickness in his stomach. Crouching down, he was tempted to touch the water, but thought better of sticking his hand in the pool.

Standing up straight, he started to look around for something to poke the water with. Walking around the edge of the beach, and careful not to step on the decaying piles of fish corpses, Wallace made slow progress while stopping every now and again to scan for an object to disturb the water with. Eventually, becoming distracted with the task at hand, he didn't notice as his foot plunged through the rotting carcass of a fish. He looked down and the odour wafted up past the face covering, finally tipping over his stomach.

Wallace tore the fabric from his face, vomiting the contents of his small breakfast onto the dusty ground. He continued retching until nothing came out, and stood bent over and hands on his thighs to steady himself for a moment.

When his energy returned and he felt steady on his feet, he slowly stood up straight, wiping the tears from his eyes He took a deep breath before moving away from the contents of his stomach now spilled all over the floor to sit. Finding a dune a ways away from the water, he sat at it's base and slung his pack to the ground, leaning the banjo against it. Sitting beside it he also removed his hat and grabbed the canteen swinging from the side of his pack.

Attempting to clear the awful taste now lingering in his mouth, Wallace took a small swig of water and spat it on the ground, clearing the remaining vomit from his tastebuds. He almost felt sorry for wasting precious water, but hoped that Marco and Star would pull through. Taking another swig, only swallowing this time he reflected on the past few days. Although he had been watching the three before he went into their camp, he still didn't trust the boy, Marco and felt that the feeling was mutual.

The girl, Star on the other hand seemed to trust him. She liked his music and was fascinated by everything around them despite the circumstances. He felt sorry for her, and couldn't imagine what it was like. Going through this was hard enough for humans who knew about it and the danger of radiation and other people, but she seemed so naive. She didn't know what nuclear war was, or radiation. It was safe to assume, he decided, that she came from a technologically inferior society from the descriptions he had heard thus far.

And then there was Glossaryck, the enigma. Always speaking in riddles, Wallace couldn't make heads or tails of what he was trying to say half the time, and when he did it usually just confused whoever he was addressing. Wallace couldn't read the blue man, yet he felt like Glossaryck could look right through him. Whenever he looked into Glossaryck's eyes, it was like a black hole. They would suck in and absorb anything they could, but nothing could escape.

Wallace's now empty stomach growling for food pulled him from this thoughts as he started digging through the pocket of his pack where he kept his snacks. Removing them, he took inventory of what he had. Thee granola bars, a piece of chocolate which was long deformed from the desert sun, two sealed fruit cups, and a clif bar. Laying the items out before him, he immediately rejected the chocolate, putting it back into the pocket. "I would rather save that for an occasion."

Surveying the remaining snacks in front of him, he eventually chose to eat the clif bar. Washing the dry protein bar down with the last of his water, Wallace decided to take a short break before continuing his adventure to find something to stir the reservoir water and grabbed his banjo to play a short tune. His cracked hands started slow, but eventually sped up to the pace of a fast beat, playing whatever came naturally, a song he had heard in an old movie once. "Oh I'm a man, of constant sorrow..."

He continued playing for about ten minutes before stopping, his stomach relaxed and ready to continue his investigation of the water. Re-attaching his canteen to the pack before swinging it onto his back and putting his banjo around his shoulder, he made his way to the top of the dune he had been sitting at the base of. The first thing he saw when he reached the top of the sandy hill was a beaten up white pickup, and two guys standing outside armed with rifles. Wallace instantly through himself to the ground, his bashe clothing camouflaging him against the sand.

He procured his binoculars, looking over the situation ahead of him. "Two guys, one with a rifle of some sort, one with a shotgun." Wallace said to himself, formulating a plan as he panned towards the door, now open. "Looks like there are more inside the building too." Looking to the other side of the road, he could see the road, open and perfect for an escape. Suddenly, a sound familiar to Wallace echoed from the building interior. Gunfire.

"... Shit."

"You two, fan out and see if they're still here. Nobody steals from us!" a feminine voice ordered, as two heavy sets of footsteps thumping against the metal floors hurried in opposite directions.

"Marco, what are we going to do?" A muffled voice came from the boys left. Star was clearly scared. And after her last encounter with people Marco could understand why. Now she knew what a gun could do and it terrified her. Monsters were dumb and used their fists or clubs. Swords at best. Humans on the other hand were smart, and dangerous.

Marco thought for a minute before brandishing his newfound weapon in one hand. "We have to sneak out and find the other two." Peaking up, Marco saw the woman still standing in the door, but due to the echoing he couldn't pinpoint the location of the two men. Using the little provided by the door, Marco noticed a potential exit on the other side of the building, the only problem being they would notice the light and noise. It was however, better than nothing.

Marco motioned for Star to follow and they crept back the way they came until they heard the distinct sound of footsteps coming up the stairs directly in front of them. An obscured head popped over the top, and although he couldn't see the other man's face Marco knew that he had seen them. Reacting quickly, Marck cocked the hammer of his magnum, and fired in the general direction of the other man.

Although Marco missed by a mile, it scared the other man into falling backwards down the stairs. The flash in the darkness temporarily, and a ringing in his ears let him only be partially aware of the girl frantically screaming his name and pulling him back towards the room.

Terrified was an understatement for what Star was feeling. She was vaguely aware of yelling and footsteps rushing towards their position, but she was more scared for Marco. His eyes were unfocused and he couldn't seem to hear her. She bit her lip as she removed her wand from the purse around her shoulder, ready to ward off these people even if it meant losing the wands magic until a hand grasped her wrist, and she turned to see Marco, shaking his head no. Although Star didn't agree, she trusted Marco and put her wand back into the purse, holding onto Marco as he quickly shoved the pistol into his hoodie and the footsteps once more reached the top of the stairs and into the room.

A flashlight filled the room with light and Star held her hand over her eyes to block the intense brightness shining into her eyes. "They're up here!" She heard a deep voice yell, before it turned to the pair. "You move, you die. It's that simple, so I would suggest you sit tight." The voice was a deep scratchy growl, and it's commanding tone prevented either from moving so much as an inch. Quickly, two other figures joined the one in front of them, shining flashlights in their eyes.

"Get up!" a feminine voice shouted at them, and the two complied. They stood, leaving their packs on the ground as the lights lowered and two pairs of hands grabbed them, pulling them towards the exit.

"Where are you taking us?" Asked Star, summoning the courage to speak up as she identified those restraining Marco and her as two burly men, the third party still unknown to her.

"Shut it!" The one holding her yelled, as he tightened his grip on her. As they passed through the exit, they saw two more armed men, and a truck. They were escorted over, and told to sit on the ground.

When the two were finally released, they could see the female. She was young, three years older than them at most, and had long ginger hair, a similar shade to Wallace. "You two," she said, pointing at the men who were waiting at the truck. "Go secure the room, and bring the bags in there." They nodded, running towards the building. She then turned to Marco and Star, sitting by the side of the truck. "You two, get in the back." Under the threat of gunpoint, they complied, climbing into the bed followed by the men who carried them out of the building.

They waited, the woman sat, watching the hills until two men exited the building, securing the door and carrying a pack each. As they got near, the woman got into the driver's seat of the truck, and the men with their bags got in the back seats. The engine started, and the truck lurched forward as it started to turn, continuing along road they had been heading down, kicking up dust behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Gray Hills - Chapter 10**

 **Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in the update. I expected to have the break to write, until I discovered Bob Ross. I then binge watched all 31 seasons of his painting show. If you are going to ask why, well he is calming. Probably the most calming thing I have ever heard. (Also I didn't like this chapter so rewrote it at least twenty times.)**

 **I would also like to take this time to say that I really appreciate all of the support I have been receiving throughout the story, and all of the followers, favourites, reviews ect. And damn, I have readers from countries I didn't even know existed. (Sorry Uzbekistan). Your feedback has helped me improve the story so much and you guys are as much a part of this journey as Marco or Star.**

 **Anywho, onto reviews.**

 **Guest Sorta - Yeah, pretty much, but it will pick up right there this chapter.**

 **jminator - Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying, and also the world has ended in nuclear fire, people have been killing each other left right and center, and the water is now undrinkable. So I will leave it up to you to decide that :). (Also what was B going be?)**

 **Disclaimer - Although I attempted to gain access to copyrights to Star vs The Forces of Evil, all I found were emails from Hillary Clinton.**

As the sun started to set, the truck slowing to a stop jolted the sleeping boy in it's bed awake, the sight of buildings causing him to sit silently. Where the two men sat previously, there was now a woman watching over them. Marco could hear voices around them, people. Craning his head to the right, he saw small buildings, some which seemed to be makeshift shop fronts, and others converted to house people. Just down the street, he could make out the faded letters of "Los Banos PD".

The people around the truck were different than the others they had encountered. They looked relaxed, dressed in relatively clean clothes, and only a few had backpacks on. There was no one who appeared to be starving, sick, or injured. In all his time with Star, all of their adventures, nothing was as magical as the sight before him. Had the presence of the woman watching him not been in his peripheral vision, he would have been amazed, but she distracted him from his surroundings.

"Where are we?" Marco asked, just audible above the background noise, careful not to wake the girl beside him.

The woman looked up at him, much less intimidating when her face was visible. "You'll find out soon enough." Marco attempted to read her face, but her stern look prevented him from doing so.

The truck took a turn, and to his right, Marco could see a small patch of land turned into a farm, though it seemed that most of the crops were dead due to a combination of the rain and cold. He could see people dotted around the field, attempting to save the few crops not withard and black, small patches of corn and wheat blowing in the wind. As the wind picked up, so did the dust from the ground blowing from the field towards the area they had just passed through, creating a shield of dust between Marco and the outside world. All he could see was the sleeping girl beside him and he could just make out the woman across from him.

Feeling the truck turn, and stop after a minute, he heard the doors open, and slam shut. The woman stood up and walked over to him, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the back, leaving Star behind, still asleep. Two of the men from before approach them. "You two, watch her until I come out to get her." With that, she took Marco away from the truck, and towards a large building looming in the distance. At the entrance sat two armed men, who nodded at the woman as she escorted Marco past them, one of them sticking out an arm to open a boarded up door for them. The woman thanked him and stepped inside. Dust and wind flew inside the dim hallway for a second, until the door shut behind the two.

"Come on, we are going up to the second floor." The woman said to him. "You have to talk to Harold."

"Harold?" Marco asked out loud, though no response was given. "Okay then, I guess we're not talking." Progressing down the hall, there numerous doors, some with names chiseled into them, others with guards standing outside. The only sound in the hall was the clicking of heels against the hardwood floor, and the sound was ecstasy to Marco's ears. It was a sound that reminded him of his life before the bombs, when the greatest challenge of every day was nodding at Jackie Lyn Thomas.

Now, months later here is Marco, having done unspeakable things to protect himself and Star. Stolen, Abandoned, Threatened, Starved, _Murdered_. Whenever the thought popped into his head, he always justified these actions. After all, it was all to help Star, who had to get back to her planet and rule. Without her, there would be no one to rule and chaos would ensue. Millions could die. Star surviving was for the greater good, and he by extensions needed to survive to help Star. This is how Marco justified his actions to himself, though months of things getting worse, and no solution in sight was beginning to take its toll. Marco could no longer sleep soundly at night, or look forward to the next day, because he knew it would end in someone else's suffering.

This train of thought tore Marco back to reality, where they were nearing the end of the hallway, and had almost reached the stairs. Seeing a set of pristine oak steps, leading to the second floor was bringing Marco back to the thoughts of the past, so he did the first things that came to mind to distract him. He started humming to himself. At first it was just random tunes, although eventually it drifted into a familiar tune.

Marco followed the woman up the flights of stairs mindlessly, engrossed in his tune before she spoke without looking at him. "Nice tune, what is it?" Being the first conversation attempt made by the woman, Marco decided to indulge her.

Pausing his tune, Marco responded with "The song that made me realize my place in life. Not at first, but eventually."

The woman sighed as they reached the top of the stairs, and removed her hand from the bannister before turning to face him. "Kid, in this world no one has a place. We're just a bunch of misfits walking the road of destiny, sometimes meeting another wanderer for a brief moment." Marco was left speechless by this woman's speech, who only hours previously had been exchanging bullets rather than words. She pointed to a door with the word 'Harold' chiseled on the front. "Harold is in there, but I have to go get your friend."

As soon as she said this, Marco suddenly blurted out, "Where are you taking her?"

"She's going to get a medical examination, and so are you after Harold is done talking to you." With this the woman passed Marco, and left the way she came in. Turning towards the door, an ominous feeling swept over Marco. He hadn't the faintest idea of what was ahead, and the thought of speaking to a complete stranger, on their terms made Marco nervous, but the sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could see Star.

Before Marco could rethink his situation, he quickly crossed the hall and grabbed the door handle. It was cool to the touch and that helped to ease Marcos troubled mind. Through the door, he could hear a deep voice accompanied by an assortment of instruments. As the handle turned and the door swung open, the atmosphere inside the small office was one with an instant calming effect. Jazz emanated from a set of speakers on each side of the room, controlled by a turntable by the window behind a large mahogany desk. Seated at the desk was a plump man writing on a piece of paper.

Looking up from his work the man smiled at Marco as he entered. Setting down his pen, he stood. "Ah, you must be the new boy, come, sit!" The man enthused. Marco walked towards the desk, noticing the small wooden seat in front of the desk. As Marco approached, the man, Harold extended his hand. Marco cautiously shook it, and they both sat down. "My name is Harold, pleased to meet you."

When Star woke in a dimly lit room with clean white walls, she initially was paralyzed with confusion. The scene before her was almost alien. Cabinets with neat labels stuck onto the front of the doors. A soft rhythmic beeping away to her right. She quickly noticed that someone had changed her into a light gown and bathed her. The stink of sweat and feeling of grime was gone, replaced with the soft scent of lavender. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, pushing the comforter away from her. Her bare feet against the tiled floor sent tingles up her spine, a combination of a sensation not felt in months, and the cool temperature of the tiles. This initially caused her to recoil, "Cold." After a minute of preparing herself, she placed her feet back on the floor and stood. The draft against her exposed back quickly informed her of the bare state of her back, but her curiosity caused her to press onward, ignoring the exposed state of her backside.

When Star attempted to make her first step, a tugging on her chest made her realize that she was still connected to the beeping machine. Star grabbed the cords attached to her chest, and pulled, causing her to be free from their restraint, although the machine to the right of the bed began to make a loud, high-pitched noise. Star immediately made a mad dash for the door, though when she tried the handle it was locked. "Drat." She muttered to herself. With the door being locked, the sound of footsteps running towards her from the hallway on the outside of the room, and no window, Star did the most rational thing she could think of; Prepare to attack.

Grabbing the closest object to her, a small office chair sitting in front of a desk, she stood behind where the door would open, the chair hoisted over her head waiting. The sound of her heart beating in her chest was all Star focused on as she heard rattling on the other side the door, followed by a click and the door handle turning. The smug open and a figure sprinted in. With all of her might, Star made an attempt to throw her weapon at the figure, although due to her malnutrition and exhaustion, the chair landed a few feet away from her target, startling the figure. "I'm going to need you to calm down miss Butterfly."

Star narrowed her eyes at the figure in front of her, she could now clearly make them out. It was a man, slightly shorter than her with jet black hair and a long white coat that draped down to his knees. "How do you know my name?" she asked cautiously, while slowly backing her way into the corner of the room.

"It was on your student card, you're a long way from Home." He started to advance towards her, "You shouldn't be out of bed." When he saw Stars body tense up as he neared her, he stopped, and moved away. The man walked over to the bed, bent over and quickly the noise from the machine stopped. Walking back towards her he stopped, righting the chair on the floor and sitting in it, facing Star. "Since I know your name, I suppose it is only polite for me to tell you mine. I am Dr Daniels, although most people here just call me Dr D."

"Where am I? Where is Marco?" Star asked, not trusting the man sitting in front of her.

"You are in Los Banos. We're a small community, well I suppose we are as big as they get these days, and I assume you mean the boy you came in with?" Star nodded in response. "He is talking to our leader of sorts, Harold."

"When can I see him?" Star asked?

"When he arrives. He will be coming here for a medical examination after he is done talking to Harold, while you're waiting your clothes have been washed and are over by your bed in the cabinet." He pointed to the one he meant, before standing. "I will be outside and down the hall to the left if you need me."

As the doctor left the room, he closed the door behind him, leaving it unlocked this time. Star waited to make sure that no one else was coming before quickly moving across the room, the only sound the pattering of her feet. She opened the cabinet the doctor had indicated, and inside was her backpack and clothes, neatly folded in a pile on the shelf.

She placed her clothes on the bed in front of her, and observed them. Her classic teal dress had numerous stains, holes and tears. The coat she had been wearing for the past two months was faring much worse. When they had taken it from a store it was brand new, a bit dusty. Now the green was faded, stitching ripped out, had multiple repairs sown in, and was crumpled all along the arms.

Her leggings had hardly made it past the first two weeks. In their place was a worn pair of jeans, which were probably faring the best. With only few small rips near the bottom, they had at least kept her warm. Stripping the gown from her body, she turned back to the cabinet to grab her underwear when she noticed a small mirror on the door. Stepping back a bit, she observed herself. Her arms were covered in bruises, cuts, and scars. She could see ribs poking out from below her chest, and her face looked awful, not from anything physical, but from the stress. It was wearing her down, it was evident from the bags under her eyes, the acne dotting her face, and the way her eyes drooped.

Star quickly looked away, deciding to get dressed so she could meet Marco when he arrived. For the first time in months Star put fresh clothes on. No grime, stink, or dirt. It felt like this could be a new start for Marco and her if the people were friendly and let them stay. After dressing, she looked around for her socks and boots. She found them on the bottom shelf of the cabinet, also washed. She picked the two pairs up, and sat on the bed. Laying back to stare at the ceiling, she took in every little detail. The small brown stains, chunks missing, and various spider webs in the corners. She watched a small spider crawl along its empty web. Patrolling the length of its hunting ground. Finding no prey, it crawled along to the wall, before starting its way towards the next web.

With the spider moving on with its life, Star realized that she had to do the same. Pulling her socks on, having to retry after her toe went through a hole, she laced up her boots and stood again. Wiggling her toes, she moved towards the door, now confident enough to confront the doctor. Crossing the floor, Stars boots squeaked against the floor, removing any form of stealth when she made her way out of the room. After turning the door handle, Star slowly swung the door open, peering out into the hall. True to the doctors word, he was sitting at the end of the hall at a small desk filling out paperwork. She walked down the hall, the squeaking slowly disappearing as dust and dirt clung to the bottom of her boots.

"Whatcya filling out there Doc?" Star asked when she was close enough to talk to him.

Without looking up from his work, he responded. "I am completing the paperwork for your medical examination, and then it will be filed away. I just need to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."

"Uh, sure thing, ask away." Star replied, hoping the doctor didn't know about her magic.

"Alright, well first of all I would like to ask about your… wings?" The doctor finished his sentence in a question, as if asking for confirmation on what they were.

As soon as he asked this, Star knew she needed to decide how much to tell the man. While he seemed nice enough, in a world like this, if he found out about her magic he may force her to help his people, or worse, use her as a weapon. "Well, they are wings, and to put it simply I'm not human." Star expected the doctor to immediately fire off more questions, but instead he just made a noise of acknowledgement before writing something down.

"If you're not human, what are you?" The doctor asked, looking up at her.

"Well, we are called the Mewmans."

"I see, and your friend, Marco, what about him?"

"He is human."

"Hmmm, alright just one more question about you then. Does every member of your race have these wings?"

"Only the females." Star responded, glad that the questions about her were over.

The doctor wrote for another moment before setting aside his pen and paper, and taking a small box out of his pocket. "Now, if you don't mind I am curious about how you two survived out there. I'm making a record of sorts about people and their stories."

"Sure thing, well it all started back in echo creek…" Star summarized the past months, leaving out the parts about magic. She explained their journey north and the people the encountered. The doctor only interrupted when she started talking about Wallace.

"Wallace you say. He doesn't happen to play a banjo does he?"

Star paused at this, but confirmed the doctor's suspicions. "Um, I think that's what he called it. It had a drum at the bottom, and one of the strings ended half way up."

"Hm, well if what you're saying is true it would seem that he has changed, but I would keep tight lipped about him. If people find out you were with him, you're going to get into some trouble."

"What, why?" Star asked, confused.

"Well, there is this group-" The doctor was cut off by the sounds of a struggle at the end of the hall. He quickly stood to see what was coming, and down the hall came Marco, being dragged by two large men. He was struggling, and had a bloody nose and bruises across his face. The larger men, however were worse for ware. One seemed to have a broken nose, and the others eye was swollen shut.

"Marco!" Star started to run towards him, but the doctor put his arm in front of her.

"Jason, what is the meaning of this! Why are you dragging our new arrial in with a black eye and bloody nose?" The doctor was suddenly no longer quiet and collected.

The one with the swollen eye spoke up, while pinning both of Marco's arms behind his back. "These two know Wallace, so Harold says we gotta lock 'em up."

"That is ridiculous, just because they know him doesn't mean anything."

"Look, I don't make the rules, just open the cell and keep 'em in there." Jason pointed to a small makeshift cell that Star hadn't noticed before. There were welded metal bars from top to bottom, and a large swinging door in the middle.

The doctor grumbled in protest, but opened the door, and the large men shoved Marco in, before the doctor gestured for Star to walk in. She saw the expression in his eyes, begging her to just go in, so she complied, deciding she would be better off tending to Marco anyways.

She walked into the cell, and the door locked behind her. The doctor turned to the man with the broken nose. "Come on, let's get that nose looked at. Jason, go tell Harold I want to speak with him in an hour or two." The doctor escorted one man to a room down the hall, while the other walked back the way he came.

Star turned to Marco, seeing him staring off into space. "Marco, are you okay?"

Rather than responding to her question he said flatly, "You know, he killed people Star. He's one of those guys who eats people."

Star was confused, she didn't know who Marco was talking about. "Who is?"

Marco turned to Star, looking her in the eyes. "Wallace."

 **Again, sorry for the long wait guys but I was sick today so I got to stay home and finish rewriting this chapter. It is however, nearly twice the length of the normal chapters.**

 **Remember to review and stuff guys. I love getting your feedback and what you're thinking on the story.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 - Gray Hills**

 **Ah spring. A time of growth, life, and midterms. Luckily I have some extra time right now so I have some time to write chapters. Hopefully in bulk. So this chapter was a lot of fun to learn because it is going back to just Marco and Star for a lot of it, and it is starting to unveil the underlying stories behind everything. Also, I am going to say this now that there are a few chapters out, but I was you guys to start thinking about what actually caused the war, because there is an actual reason that I have dropped hints for previously, and it will eventually tie into the story in a major way. So if you are getting any ideas feel free to put your comments on it in the reviews. I may or may not address them, however there will be no spoilers for the story so you don't have to worry about it. I want to keep it a mystery!**

 **REVIEWS!**

 **Mikael0000 - I'm glad to see others have been blessed with the pleasure of Bob Ross. Also, thanks!**

 **synnworld - Yeah. the book of spells and her wand are both in her backpack. Pretty much all they have on them as of this moment is their clothes.**

 **Guest Sorta - Well, if I didn't end it like that what would keep you coming back :P. Also I want you to think between chapters about whatever happens at the end because things aren't always as they seem.**

 **Disclaimer - I don't own SVTFOE**

Star stared in disbelief. "No, that can't be right. Why would he be one of them. He's too nice."

"Star, the reason we are in here right now is because of him. The second I mentioned him, their leader pulled a gun on me and called in his men. Then they started accusing me of being a murderer."

"That doesn't mean that he is one." Star refused to believe that the charming young man who had saved them and spent days with them was a bad guy. Why would he have saved them from the men when they had help him captive.

"Star, they called me one of his lackeys. That means that he isn't just one of them, but he is in charge, at least to some extent." Marco had that look on his face. The one Star had become accustomed to in the past months. His face scrunched up, his voice got deeper, and his eyes lost their normal warmth. It meant he was serious.

Star looked away from him, walked to the corner and sat, head between her knees, looking at the floor. After all this time, she thought that they had found someone they could actually trust. Instead he was just like every other person they had encountered.

"Star, I know that you don't want to believe it, but he was using us. I don't know for what. Maybe for security until he could get back to his gang. He could have also been leaving a trail for them to follow us and when they caught up capture us and steal our stuff or worse." Marco shuddered at the thought of what could have happened to Star. He had seen a lot of things before they left the city, and kept to himself. If Star knew how bad people really were, she may have just shut down completely. Marco still didn't know how she retained the energy she still had.

Star looked up to Marco and he saw tears forming in her eyes. He put his arms out and she leaned into his chest, sobbing softly. Marco patted her back and stroked her hair to calm her. "It's just, I thought we found someone we could actually trust." She said between sobs.

"You know Star, we've made it through so much. At first I didn't think we would make it out of the city. After we lost everyone else I couldn't keep going. Remember that?"

Stars sobs slowed to a sniffle and she leaned away from Marco to look him in the eyes. "Yeah. You wanted me to leave you behind."

"That's right, but you kept me going. Whenever I've felt down you've helped me back on my feet and that made me realize that we only need each other. And, well maybe Glossaryck."

When Glossaryck's name was mentioned, Stars eyes widened. "Where is Glossaryck!"

Marco did the same when he realized when he had last seen him. "When I last saw him he was heading off with…. Wallace." Fearing the worst for their small blue friend, Marco was brought out of his thinking when a new round of sobs assaulted his now wet hoodie. "Hey Star, don't be upset. This is Glossaryck we are talking about. I'm sure if he is even with Wallace anymore, he could handle him. Besides, he is probably tracking us right now." Marcos words had little effect on Stars mood, so he resorted to his backup. He started to hum. Softly at first, but eventually Star could hear the vibrations deep in his chest. The tune relaxed her, and eventually she hummed along to one of the few songs she actually knows. The song played at the Blood Moon Ball.

The two hummed together for a few moments. Soon, Star put her arms around Marcos chest, and closed her eyes. Resting her head on his shoulder and sitting in his lap she listened to the rhythm he made, following along closely. Sadly, the tune soon ended, and they both sighed simultaneously. "Marco?"

"Yeah Star?"

"Thanks." They sat like that for a few seconds before a voice interrupted them from outside their cell.

"Cute." A tall skinny man was standing outside the cell, a shotgun slung on his back and keys on a belt loop around his waist. "Get up you two, it's time for your to move to your real cell."

"Our real cell?" Marco asked, standing up to confront the man.

"Didn't think you were staying here did you? There's not even a bed in there." The man unlocked and opened the door. "Come on, and grab your packs too. We took your weapons but you can keep everything else with you." Theman turned around and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey Doc! Where did you put the kids' packs?"

A muffled yell came from the end of the corridor. "Behind my desk, third cabinet from the left."

"Ain't that the uh, special cabinet?"

There was a slight pause before the doctor responded with a simple answer. "Yes."

The tall man glanced back at Star and Marco, who had just emerged from the cell, and started walking towards the cabinet.

"Oh special cabinet. Hear that Marco our bags are in the special cabinet. What's the special cabinet?" Star asked, looking at the tall man.

"Uhhh..." His eyes darted around, looking for an answer, before responding, "Nothing you have to worry about."

Star frowned at this answer, and when the man went to open the door, she tried to peer inside, but she was disappointed when all she saw were stacks of magazines. She leaned back to Marco and started whispering. "I don't get what's so special. It's just a bunch of magazines with what looks like ladies on the front."

Marcos face turned a slight shade of red, while he tried to think of a Star friendly way to explain. "Well Star, they are uh, special magazines for guys."

Star was about to inquire further, but to Marco's relief their packs were placed in front of them. "There, now let's get going if you have everything." Star and Marco followed their escort as he started to walk down the hall Marco had been dragged down earlier. "So, what's you're story? I know you were with Wallace but what about before that?"

Marco decided to answer the man's question, seeing nothing better to do. "Well, we started down in L.A. and left the city as quickly as possible. It was a mess. Half the city was on fire, the other half already destroyed. Gangs took over blocks and people started to get sick. We were still there at that time, with a group of friends. The trouble really started when food became scarce after a few weeks."

Star cut in. "I never knew people could be so cruel."

Marco knew that Star didn't like to relive those weeks, and neither did he, but it would be best if at least some people here knew their story so that they could maybe or at least get them out of there. "When we eventually got out of the city it was just us two, and we've been heading north ever since. We met a few groups out there. Some good, some bad, but we've mostly avoided other people."

"How did you end up with Wallace?"

"Well, we had seen some bad guys in the area, a few days south of here on foot, and I think they were following us. We heard a fighting in a town we had just left, so we ran. About a day later I noticed the smell."

The man turned to Marco and smirked as they neared a set of double doors with light shining through the windows. "What smell?"

"Well, it smelt like Maple Syrup. It came and went, and I was sure that we were being followed. Then we wake up one day and it's all I can smell. Next thing I know I'm staring down the barrel of a shotgun." As they passed through the doors, Marco noticed the weather had let up. It was nighttime, and there were still dark clouds in the sky, but there was no wind. Marco saw something float past his eye. A small grey flake. "Is it snowing?"

"No, it's ash." Going down a few steps, they passed by several lamp posts still with power, and a few trash can fires. The street was now empty save for a few men patrolling the streets with assorted weapons. "I'm curious how you got out of your situation, most people who meet the wrong end of his gun don't survive."

"Well, he said he wanted to talk, so he lowered his weapon."

Star intervened, knowing Marco would be modest. "After he lowered his weapon, Marco kicked his butt!"

"Actually I kicked his face."

The man laughed ahead of them. "You kicked him in the face? That's hilarious. Wallace and his guys have been harassing us for weeks now, and all that it takes is a good kick to take him down."

"Well, anyways we tied him to a tree and eventually he woke up and started telling us this made up story about him and his friends and how they were attacked. Eventually, two guys, who I now know were his friends came out of the forest and attacked us."

"Ah, so he set you two up for an ambush?" The man guessed.

Star replied this time. "I don't think so."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, Marco was about to be stabbed when Wallace saved him, and then ran away with us." Although Star could hardly see the man's face in the darkness, she could see the surprise plastered all over it. "When we woke up the next day I thought he had gone to get his group, because he was missing, but then I just found him in the forest playing a song." Star sighed, thinking over everything that had happened in the few days since they met Wallace. "It just doesn't make sense that he would be a bad guy."

Their escort spoke up, deciding to give his opinion. "Well, where is he now? Because if he was with you then he would be here right now."

"We had split up to look for stuff when you people arrived. He was down at the beach checking out the water and why it was black, while we went inside. That's when your guys showed up and put us in the truck." Marco replied, unsure how to feel about Wallace after the conversation. On one hand, these people swore up and down that he was a bad guy. That he had been raiding them and killed people. On the other he had come into their camp to talk. He saved them, and could have left multiple times if his people were following them.

Marco's thoughts were interrupted when they stopped outside a small building across from where the truck had stopped. Outside stood the man with the swollen eye. "Evening." Their escort greeted.

"Hey Rob, you going to stay this time and play some cards with me an' the boys?"

"Sorry man, Sylvia is waiting for me at home, so I gotta get back to her. Make sure these kids get good treatment, they've been through a lot."

When their escort, Rob, said this, the tall man got angry. "That one," he said, pointing at Marco, "Gave me a lot of trouble. He gave me this eye, and fought like a mule."

Rob laughed at this, before putting his hand on the other man's shoulder. "Remember, you owe me"

"Fine, but you had better come by tomorrow." Rob agreed before wishing Star and Marco luck and walking away into the darkness. They turned to the large man behind them before he sighed. "Cme on, let's get inside. It's getting cold out here."


	12. Chapter 12 Part 1

Chapter 12 - Gray Hills

Hey everyone, sorry for the long period between the last update and this one but I've been busy with graduation and the likes. This chapter is also pretty short, because I divided this chapter into two to make it flow better, and I think it turned out well. I will probably upload the second part in a few days, and get back to regular updates soon.

Reviews

synnworld - Haha, no she didn't but remember that she can only do that when she really needs to do something, and it is also unintentional. She doesn't know how to do it per-say, it just happens. However regarding that, it will take part in the story in a major way, but if I just threw it in left and right for minor things I feel like it wouldn't still hold the meaning of when it happens in the show.

Guest Sorta - Thanks for the continued support of my story.

Disclaimer - So I have developed a multiverse-machine which lets me go through the multiverse, and I am still searching for a universe where I own Star vs The Forces of Evil.

Star and Marco passed through a large set of wooden doors leading into what they guessed was a form of jail. Behind them, the guards, Rob closed the door and started walking down the dark hall, the odd light bulb hanging from the ceiling the only light present. Turning his head to make sure the two were following him, he started walking down the hall. Following Rob to a door, he opened it and walked through motioning for the teens to follow him. They entered a room with two beds, a dresser and a barred window facing the street.

"This is where you will be staying for now, until it's decided what will happen with you." Rob said to them, motioning for them to enter the room.

"How is that decided?" Marco asked, the man turned towards him. There will be a trial in front of the entire town where you will be given a chance to explain yourself, and after there will be a vote to see if you're guilty or not guilty of associating with Wallace, and after that it is decided what we do with you."

"What could happen to us?" Star asked the man.

"Depends on if you convince the people here you didn't know who Wallace was."

"What happens then?"

"Well, you will either be allowed to stay or given some stuff and sent on your way." This eased Stars nerves, until Marco asked another question.

"And if we can't?"

"Well, then we decide what to do with you. Keep you locked up, kick you out, or if you manage to really screw up, execute you." Rob turned to leave before he paused. "I hope for your sake, you can convince everyone." Walking through the door. It closed and they both heard it lock.

Star placed her pack down and sat on her bed, placing her head in her hands. "What are we going to do Marco?"

"We just need to tell the truth, that's all we can do." Marco said, as he sat beside her taking her hands into his and looking her in the eye. "We're going to get through this, just like everything else. Nothing has changed."

"Except now it's just the two of us, at least we had Glossaryck to ask for advice before, even if it was just riddles most of the time." Star let go of one of Marco's hands to reach into her pack. Feeling around. Her had eventually emerged clutching her wand. "Maybe, we can break out."

Marco wasn't going to lie to himself. He had come across thought had come across initially, but he had dismissed it. "Star, breaking out with do nothing for our case. If they recapture us, it will just make us look more guilty." Star looked at Marco, unsure about the plan, until Marco spoke up again. "Although, if need be, we are getting out."

Star smiled at Marco before yawning. "Hey Marco, where do you think Glossaryck is right now?"

Marco looked at Star and smiled. "I'm sure he is being a typical Glossaryck. Watching from a distance, and treating this as a test. As soon as we get out he will tell us about how it was all part of his plan and that will be that."

They remained silent for a moment, Marco having moved from holding Star's hand to holding her close with his arm around her shoulder. "Then he will demand pudding." Star said, causing the two to burst out in laughter.

Once their laughter had died down, Marco started talking again. "We've made it through a lot more than this Star. We beat Ludo and his minions countless times, Toffee, and even a dragon once! These are just people trying to survive. Everything is going to be alright, I promise."

Star turned her head and looked up at Marco. "Thanks Marco." The pair sat together for a while, enjoying the relative safety that came with being inside a settlement of people who, for the moment didn't want to hurt them.

After some time, the two laid down next to each other and drifted off to sleep in the comfort of each other's arms.

When dawn came, the pair was awoken by a heavy knock on the door before the latch was undone and it swung open, Rob standing in the door.

"Rise and shine, you two have a busy day ahead of you."

Marco was the first to sit up, as Star, only half awake mumbled something about five more minutes. He got out of the bed, deciding to give into Star's request, being the first time in over a month they had slept in a bed. "Is our trial today?" Marco asked, standing before Rob.

"Yeah, you have about an hour and a half to prepare. I'm here to bring you food and escort you if you need to relieve yourselves."

Star heard this from across the room and jumped up. "I need to uh, 'relieve myself'." She said, Marco agreeing. Rob escorted them out back to an outhouse. Outside the cold bit at their faces. The warm interior of their cell was a welcome feeling after the cooling temperature over the past week, and going from the warmth to a bone chilling wind removed any sleepiness that remained.

Star looked up to the sky, seeing only a depressing grey covering the whole sky. No birds flew through the sky anymore, and the clouds blocked the sun, making it look more like dusk than morning. To distract herself from the cold and overcast skies, she decided to strike up conversation with their guard. "You said yesterday that Wallace was from another group, where exactly are they?" She asked.

Rob decided to respond to her question, seeing nothing better to do. "He and his group are based in a small town just south-west of here called Dos Palos. They seem to be based in the center of the town. There were some nice folks there until they moved in."

"What... happened to them?" Star asked, pausing for a second mid-sentence.

"Well, we don't know exactly, but they aren't there anymore." They reached the outhouse and Marco allowed Star to enter first.

The two men stepped a short way away from the hut to allow Star for some privacy, and Marco picked up the conversation from where Star had left it off. "So, how bad is this group really?"

Rob grunted. "Bad doesn't even begin to describe them." Marco looked at Rob with a questioning look. "I didn't want to say anything in front of your friend, she seems to be a bit…" He paused, unsure of how to describe her personality.

"Yeah, Star is something else." Marco agreed.

Rob took a deep breath, and started to explain.


End file.
